Japan Is Unmasking, and Its Smile Coach Is Busy

nytimes.com

6 points·zdw··9 comments

The problem with articles like these about new esoteric professions is you never know if it's a serious, growing industry or one weirdo who managed to get media attention.

Just more trash from the NYTimes...

Why does American media portray Japan like this all the time?

They take one niche thing, write an "article" about it, and frame it as the norm for all of Japan...

True, but not just about Japan. Many many things they portray as "usual" and "normal" are not normal or popular, just things some people do, but is not representative of a population at large. This is how they drive narratives.

> Many many things they portray as "usual" and "normal" are not normal or popular

Being in the news means it's newsworthy. By definition not normal.

We ~talk~ read news about plane crashes but not car crashes. Why? Because plane crashes stand out.

There's a fair amount of deciding what is "newsworthy" on the media's behalf.

Which murders, scandals, legislation to cover...

The idea that people have forgotten how to smile while masking is so patently absurd that this article reads like parody.

https://archive.ph/MUi6k

No one seemed to have trouble smiling in Japan when I went there in 2011, when people were still masking up to protect against the first SARS...

It is behind a paywall, correct?

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