What is going to remain unchanged regardless?

We are yet to see the end of the coronavirus pandemic, and many things around our daily life have already changed. Especially, “Digitization” of things such as telework and Zoom drinking parties has been promoted on a large scale. So, in Japan post-coronavirus, what are things will change and won’t?

Things changed

- Masks became Necessities

我が家にもやっと、
「アベノマスク」が届きました。
「自分は感染者かもしれないという意識をもっていただき、症状がない人でもマスクの着用をお願いします。」ですね。
了解しました！#厚生労働省#３つの密を避けましょう！ pic.twitter.com/X1UHr0qDsP

— 樹　木　(き　き) (@5a29vUgoxi1GHU4) June 15, 2020

With the spread of handmade masks and supply of masks, known as Abe-no-mask, by the government, masks have become our necessities. Even before the coronavirus, people in Japan had a habit of wearing masks all the time, but we can clearly see even more people wearing masks after the pandemic. Some of characteristics of Japanese, such as their less reluctance to wear masks and way of communication with less physical contacts than that in the western culture, have probably been keeping the number of infected lower.    

- Going Online

With the rapid spread of the telework, people realized that even some parts of jobs that are used to be believed unsuitable for the telework application could actually be transitioned to the telework in many industries, and some companies even decided to permanently implement it. Thanks to this trend, individuals’ career path has been becoming more and more flexible these days globally.

Moreover, all sort of activities that are part of communications such as drinking parties, events, and so on, now can be completed all online. 

- More Interest in the Politics

During the coronavirus pandemic, how each government handled the issue gathered a great interest of people all over the world. Generally speaking, people in Japan have less interest in the politics, however, people paid great attentions to Japanese government’s response to the pandemic including benefits, compensations, and the state of emergency declaration. Especially for the younger generation that has a low turnout, it became a opportunity to get familiar with the politics.

Things won’t change

- Considerations for others

Needless to say, in the pandemic it stood out how important the considerations for others are.

Some people got aggressive against pharmacy clerks accusing them for not having masks stocked. People also started spending more time on SNS and issues related to libelous posts have become more serious. To overcome this difficult time, we need to help each other and make the society more compassionate. 

- Importance of the Information Literacy

As we already talked about, people are spending more time at home than ever, therefore, on SNS as well. Inevitably, we encounter SNS users criticizing politics or societies, posting libelous posts, and leaking private information more often. Ever since the introduction of the internet, the information literacy has been very important, it will be even more important in the future.  

The future ahead of the digitized world

We’re yet see the end of the impact of the coronavirus, hence, it’s expected that more and more things will be digitized.

In the near future in Japan, telework technologies will release more people from pain of being in the rush hours, the SNS will be kept in order and less people will suffer from online bullies, and the younger generation will have a high voter turnout... That what the future probably will be.