Japanese pay as much as R1,000 an hour for ‘smiling classes’

In one of Keiko Kawano’s recent classes, more than a dozen Tokyo art school students held mirrors to their faces, stretching the sides of their mouths upward with their fingers: they were practising how to smile.

Kawano’s services as a smile instructor are seeing a surge in demand in Japan, where maskwearing was near universal during the pandemic.

Himawari Yoshida, 20, one of the students taking the class as part of her school’s courses to prepare them for the job market, says she needed to work on her smile.

Kawano’s company Egaoiku — literally “Smile Education ”— has seen a more than fourfold jump in demand from last year, with customers ranging from companies seeking more approachable salespeople and local governments looking to improve their residents’ wellbeing. An hour-long one-on-one lesson costs 7,700 yen (about R1,071).

Even before the pandemic, donning a mask in Japan was normal for many during hay fever season and around exams due to concern about getting ill for a key life event.

But while the government may have lifted its recommendation to wear masks in March, many people have still not let them go on a daily basis.

A poll in May showed 55% of Japanese saying they were wearing them just as often as two months earlier.

Roughly a quarter of the art school students who took the class kept their masks on during the lesson. Young people have, perhaps, become used to life with masks, Kawano said.

The former radio host, who started giving lessons in 2017, has also trained 23 others as smiling coaches to spread the virtues and technique of crafting the perfect smile.

Her trademarked “Hollywood Style Smiling Technique” method comprises “crescent eyes”, “round cheeks” and shaping the edges of the mouth to bare eight pearly whites in the upper row.