Gen Z students in Japan are holding mirrors up to their faces, stretching the sides of their mouths upward with their fingers and rediscovering how to smile.
They are taking classes from a “smile instructor,” Keiko Kawano, after becoming too accustomed to wearing face masks for over three years.
The former radio host started giving lessons in 2017, but according to Reuters, her company Egaoiku—which translates to Smile Education—has seen over a fourfold jump in demand in the last year.
Himawari Yoshida, a 20-year-old art student, said that smiling lessons have become part of her school’s curriculum to prepare them for the job market.
“I hadn’t used my facial muscles much during COVID, so it’s good exercise,” she told Reuters while explaining that she needs to work on her smile.
Kawano’s clientele range from Gen Z students like Yoshida to salespeople that are trying to be more approachable with customers—and a one-hour-long lesson is setting them back 7,700 yen ($55).
Her trademarked “Hollywood Style Smiling Technique” method comprises shaping the edges of the mouth to bare eight pearly whites in the upper row—and students can practice their technique on a tablet to get scored on their grins.
Mask mandates have lifted, but it’s embedded in culture
Japan was one of the last major economies to relax its official guidance on face coverings, in March this year.
Dubbed “mask-free Monday,” Disney park operator Oriental Land, East Japan Railway, and cinema operator Toho were among the major companies to finally drop their mask requirements.
In most situations, it’s now up to individuals to mask up—but it’s unlikely people will completely ditch face coverings as it was embedded in Japanese culture long before the pandemic.
In fact, a recent poll by Japan’s public broadcaster NHK showed that only 6% of people planned to stop wearing masks altogether.
Tellingly, Reuters reported that roughly a quarter of the students who took Kawano’s class kept their masks on during the lesson.
Young people have, perhaps, become used to life with masks, Kawano said, while adding that women might find it easier to go out without makeup and men could hide that they hadn’t shaved.
Part of a wider issue
Even in parts of the world where mask mandates were dropped early on, young people are struggling to adapt to life—and the social norms that come with it—post-pandemic.
As Gen Z Japanese students find solutions to their smiling regression, COVID-era graduates in the U.K. are learning how to work with others again.
Two of the world’s Big Four accounting firms are now offering extra training to young new hires who have “less confidence doing basic tasks” such as making presentations and speaking up in meetings.
Deloitte and PwC, who run some of the largest graduate recruitment programs in Britain, took stock that junior employees—who spent part of their school or university years isolated from their peers—have weaker teamwork and communication skills than previous cohorts.
“This means that there is a greater need for employers to provide training on basic professional and working skills, that wasn’t necessary in prior years,” said Jackie Henry, Deloitte’s U.K. managing partner for people and purpose.
