Japan, after two years, the children want to go back to chatting at lunch

After two years of silence, Japanese children have had enough: they want to go back to chatting at lunch, in school canteens, with classmates, just like they did before the pandemic. Many preschoolers, or elementary and middle school children, they are still required to keep quiet when they eat.

A recent online survey, however, found that 90% of children would like to end the chat ban. The survey was conducted by a mother whose daughter was told by teachers to “look straight ahead and eat in silence.” «Many children wonder why they should continue with silent lunches, while adults can go to bars to drink and talk over lunch» this mother explained to the newspaper Mainichi Shimbun«but no adult offered them a convincing explanation».

According to the survey, conducted on almost 1,600 children between the end of May and the beginning of July, 79% believe that mokushoku, silence during meals to avoid the spread of aerosol droplets, is something “bad” , while 15.4% do not have a precise opinion and only 5.5% think it is a good idea. When asked if they would like to go back to chatting over lunch, 90.4% said yes and only 3.2% said no.

Institutions have maintained mokushoku, although the Ministry of Education no longer requires meals to be eaten in silence, but just that the children wash their hands before and after lunch and refrain from loud conversations.

In June, as Covid cases declined, some schools said they would ease the measures, out of fears of the effects the ban could have on children’s educational and social development. Officials in Miyazaki and Fukuoka prefectures lifted the ban in June, but Japanese media report that most schools are still requiring mokushoku.

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