Kishida responded with the push, when asked by a ruling Liberal Democratic Party MP, who called the allergy a “national disease” and implied that Kishida would “go down in history” if he eradicated it.
According to local media, Kishida said he would work with the ministers to find a solution. “We want to get results.” According to the Japanese daily Mainichi Shimbun, Kishida is expected to push more deforestation and reforestation of forests with trees that shed less pollen, as well as promoting a variety of rice thought to relieve hay fever symptoms.
Too much reforested?
Hay fever, a widespread disease, is a relatively new problem in Japan. The fact that, according to estimates, 40 percent of the inhabitants of Japan are affected by symptoms such as itchy and watery eyes, a sore throat and sneezing in spring as soon as the cedars and cypresses secrete their pollen is attributed to a post-war reforestation program, according to the Guardian .
Because after the war, mountain-dominated Japan was looking for a quick and easy way to prevent landslides and to recover building material – which is why large-scale afforestation took place, with the growing trees producing large quantities of pollen.
However, when the prices of imported building materials fell in the 1970s and 1980s, there was less logging, further increasing pollen levels. The increasing urbanization of the country has also subsequently contributed to the problem, as pollen that settles on hard surfaces such as concrete and asphalt is more easily carried by the wind.
Individual companies benefit
According to the Guardian, the latest pollen peak also explains why masks are still worn outdoors on Japan’s streets – even though the government recently relaxed the mask requirement passed during the CoV pandemic. “The pollen count is so high this year that mask wearing is likely to continue for a while,” a spokesman for Unicharm, Japan’s largest maker of disposable masks, told Yomiuri Shimbun.
And other companies are probably secret beneficiaries of the “hay fever epidemic”: According to the market research company Intage, sales of anti-inflammatory nasal sprays more than doubled at the end of February. According to the Japan Times, sales of anti-allergy eye drops have even increased by 233 percent.
Productivity suffers from pollen
The move announced by Prime Minister Kishida should also be in the interest of Japanese employers: According to the “Japan Times”, hay fever and nasal allergies have already led to an annual economic loss of around five trillion yen (35 billion euros), which is due to a decline in labor productivity is due.
According to a study in 2020, around 80 percent of Japanese hay fever patients surveyed said they were less productive because of the symptoms. Some companies, such as systems developer Japan Knowledge Space and Tokyo-based health data company Lafool, are trying to counteract the declining productivity of their employees with “hay fever subsidies” for prescription drugs and clinic visits.
Climate change worsens situation
According to the Japan Weather Association, the unseasonably high temperatures have made things worse for those affected, with pollen release starting up to two weeks earlier than last year in some areas.
According to the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, the long hours of sunshine and the high temperatures of last summer have also led to a sharp increase in cedar pollen levels this year. Japan’s Environment Ministry recently warned that Tokyo and 11 other prefectures are facing the highest levels of cedar pollen in a decade.
And according to the Austrian pollen warning service, the climate crisis is also affecting the season in this country: early bloomers bloom earlier, late bloomers longer – this makes the pollen season longer. According to GeoSphere Austria, there are similar changes in the seasons: winters are getting shorter, spring starts earlier and autumn ends later.
