As Japan suffers through nationwide mask shortage, people in one of its biggest cities are offered some for free.

While the total number of confirmed cases currently remains under 100, Japan is seeing far more coronavirus infections than many initially expected. With the outbreak originating, and primarily occurring, in China, anxiety and fear regarding the disease have prompted some in Japan to leap to the conclusion that any Chinese person they see has an extremely high probability of being a coronavirus carrier.

In spite of that, though, a group of Chinese nationals in Japan still wants to treat others with kindness, as shown in this video posted to Twitter by @loveapple.

https://twitter.com/loveapple/status/1230444994634240000

The video, shot on a street near Nagoya Station, shows a group of Chinese people handing out surgical masks, free of charge, to passersby. Japan is currently dealing with a severe shortage of masks, which are already in high demand at this time of year for those wishing to avoid colds and hay fever symptoms, and are now sold out in many shops as people buy them as coronavirus countermeasures.

“One free mask per person” reads the Japanese text on the signs, with others bearing the messages “Hang in there, Japan!” and “I ♡ China + Japan.” As pedestrians pass by on the streets, the Chinese people offer each of them a single, individually wrapped mask.

However, mixed in with online messages of thanks in reaction to the video are comments wondering just where these masks are coming from. As mentioned above, there’s a severe mask shortage going on in Japan, but there’s a shortage in China as well. As a matter of fact, the city of Nagoya just sent a humanitarian shipment of 10,000 masks to the Chinese city of Nanjing on February 10.

The official website of the Chinese embassy in Japan makes no mention of the event. The embassy has released a statement saying that it is offering coronavirus inspection kits, which it says are in short supply in Japan, to organizations in Japan, but it’s unlikely that “inspection kits” would contain surgical masks, or at least that they would contain masks in such great numbers that there would be enough extra to give away like this.

The end result is that some Japanese online commenters are saying they’d be hesitant to accept the masks, despite the thoughtfulness behind them, making this a case of “Thanks, but no thanks” for them.

Sources: Twitter/@loveapple via Jin, Twitter/@MANAO39066486, TV Aichi, Chinese Embassy in Japan
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