As Covid cases fall, Japanese school kids allowed to talk during lunch

With COVID cases showing downward trend, school kids in Japan have been given freedom to talk to their classmates during lunch. The relaxations follow two years of near-monastic silence imposed upon children during lunchtime in order to prevent spread of coronavirus.

The children were asked to observe mokushoku, or silent eating.

But schools are now abandoning the code of silence as COVID cases fall and amid concern that imposition of silence on young children may hamper their social and emotional growth.

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Board of education in Fukuoka in Japan has said that it was lifeting restrictions on conversations during lunch.

Other prefectures have also started doing the same. Miyazaki has ended such a lunchtime regime earlier in the month. Schools in Chiba, near Tokyo, have allowed children to face each other during lunchtime and eat without speaking.

The measures and relaxation of restrictions have elicited reactions from parents

“My child is used to eating silently, and I’m sure she doesn’t feel lonely as she is with her family when she gets home,” one mother said. She was quoted by The Guardian.

“I’m concerned about the possibility of infection, so I hope they will continue to eat without talking.”

Some of the teachers have praised the move.

Silent eating has gone on for a long time now,” Kenji Tanaka, a primary school principal, told the Mainichi Shimbun. “I hope happy school lunchtimes will return soon.”

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