<Anchor>

Anyway, we still have the mask problem, but Japan is still serious. The face mask issue led by Prime Minister Abe is famous. Still, the mask is a tribe, so everything goes wrong.

I am a correspondent to Yoo Sung-jae, Tokyo.

<Reporter>

Although masks are common in Japan due to spring pollen allergies, as the corona crisis prolongs, getting a mask is a star picking up the sky for 3 months.

[Tokyo residents: Even if I go to a pharmacy, I can't buy it. I use it very preciously.]

Then, fast-paced Chinese merchants jumped in importing and selling masks.

A mask that has been removed from a box in China is sold in front of a Chinese restaurant or beverage store run by it.

50 pieces cost 4,000 yen per box and 44,000 won for our money, which is four times more expensive than the masks sold at pharmacies.


[Seller: The raw material price has risen more than 20 times. There aren't so many profits.] It doesn't

sell off with the perception that you can't guarantee quality, but

[Tokyo residents: it's a restaurant that sells meals, but it's a bit scary to sell masks.]

That's why Japan suffers from lack of masks . Talking.

Last week, the electronics company Sharp had to change its way to a lottery because the site was paralyzed by 4.7 million people trying to sell over 30,000 boxes of its own masks online.

Criticism of the `` cotton mask '', which the Abe government decided to distribute at least 50 billion yen and distribute 2 copies per household, is constantly being criticized.

[Ogu-shi / Constitutional Democratic Party: I feel small, and the side is also bursting.] As

quality issues continued to rise, I decided to collect and inspect all of them and distribute them, but my confidence in the Abe regime's mask policy was gradually declining. There is.

(Video coverage: Hyunjin Moon, Video editing: Hyunki Jang)