Handy mnemonic helper, or complete sacrifice of privacy?
There’s been remarkably little resistance towards wearing masks in Japan during the pandemic. With masks already a common sight during Japan’s winter flu and spring hay fever seasons, strapping one on to help prevent the spread of modern history’s most devastating breath-spread disease isn’t something that anyone is going to say makes you look weird or overly cautious.
However, some people do feel that there’s a work-related drawback, since when everyone is wearing a mask, it’s harder to leave a visual impression on customers, clients, and colleagues. So to help counter this, you can now buy reusable face masks that also double as business cards.
Available through Nagoya-based Nagaya Printing, the Meishi Masks (meishi being the Japanese word for “business card”) are, naturally, made to order. Three different styles are on offer, starting with the Customer Service Mask, which looks the closest to a standard business card template and gives you space for your name and your company’s name and logo. There’s also the Sales Mask, which puts your name in a more prominent place, and the deluxe Selling Mask, to which you can add both your company logo and personal profile photo.
▼ Left to right Customer Service, Sales, and Selling masks (all made of 100-percent cotton)
The Meishi Mask would also serve as a nice crutch if you have trouble quickly memorizing people’s names, say, for instance, if you’re in a meeting with multiple people you’re talking to for the first time. Outside of the office, a number of online commenters have also said that a Meishi Mask with their user name would be very handy when having face-to-face gatherings (either in-person or through video chat) with friends they’ve made through social media or online gaming. However, other commenters have also pointed out that when you’re wearing a Meishi Mask, you’re pretty much telling everyone around you your name, and possibly your workplace too.
Because of that, the Meishi Mask seems like it’s best used as a second mask that you change into for meetings or other places where you’d feel comfortable wearing a name tag, while using a plain mask for commuting to and from those venues.
Each of the three designs is priced at 1,500 yen (US$14) and can be ordered online here.
Sources: T-Project via Asahi Digital via Yahoo! Japan News, Bravo-Note
Images: T-Project
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