So THAT’S what a happy face looks like! Students attend £45 SMILING lessons after years of wearing Covid masks
- People in Japan are paying £44 for a one hour ‘smile education’ lesson
- Many fear they have forgotten how to smile after wearing masks for years
Students in a Tokyo art school have been undergoing ‘smile education’, relearning their social cues after years of near-universal mask wearing.
Keiko Kawano’s company, Egaoiku, has seen a more than four-fold jump in demand for smile instruction since last year.
A one hour-long session costs 7,700 yen (£44.24), and customers range from companies investing in salespeople to local governments supporting residents’ wellbeing.
Himawari Yoshida, 20, one of the students taking the class as part of her school’s courses to prepare them for the job market, says she needed to work on her smile.
‘I hadn’t used my facial muscles much during COVID so it’s good exercise,’ she said.
Smile coach Keiko Kawano teaches students at a smile training course at Sokei Art School in Tokyo, Japan, May 30, 2023
Students learn how to practice facial muscles with mirrors at a smile training course at Sokei Art School in Tokyo, Japan, May 30, 2023
Even before the pandemic, donning a mask in Japan was normal for many during hay fever season and around exams due to concern about getting ill for a key life event.
READ MORE: Japanese paying experts to train them how to SMILE because they have forgotten how to after three years of Covid masks
But while the government may have lifted its recommendation to wear masks in March, many people have still not let them go on a daily basis.
A poll by public broadcaster NHK in May showed 55% of Japanese saying they were wearing them just as often as two months earlier.
Only 8% said they had stopped wearing masks altogether.
Roughly a quarter of the art school students who took the smiling class on May 30 kept their masks on during the lesson.
Kawano said that young people have, perhaps, become used to life with masks.
She noted that women might find it easier to go out without makeup and men could hide that they had not shaved.
The former radio host who started giving lessons in 2017 has also trained 23 others as smiling coaches to spread the virtues and technique of crafting the perfect smile around Japan.
Her trademarked ‘Hollywood Style Smiling Technique’ method comprises ‘crescent eyes’, ’round cheeks’ and shaping the edges of the mouth to bare eight pearly whites in the upper row.
Students can try out their technique on a tablet to get scored on their smile.
Students practice smiling at a smile training course at Sokei Art School in Tokyo, Japan, May 30, 2023
Smile coach Keiko Kawano teaches students at a smile training course at Sokei Art School in Tokyo, Japan, May 30, 2023
Kawano believes that culturally, Japanese people may be less inclined to smile than Westerners because of their sense of security as an island nation and as a unitary state.
‘Culturally, a smile signifies that I’m not holding a gun and I’m not a threat to you,’ she said.
With a surge in inbound tourists, Japanese people need to communicate with foreigners with more than just their eyes, she added.
‘I think there’s a growing need for people to smile,’ she said.
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