Tissues

I don’t want them but why can’t I have them?

This is what goes through my mind as I approach the train station on my daily commute.

There on the walkway, doing their best not to impede the crowd but often failing miserably are the people who hand out small packets of pocket tissues.

These things are very handy here and most well-prepared people have a packet or two in their bag or pocket.

You see, Japanese public restrooms may not have hand-drying facilities. In this case, pocket tissues will do in a pinch. They can also be used to wipe faces, blow your nose, or as a makeshift napkin.

Kindergarten children, lacking the space needed in their pockets, often wear pouches that can be clipped to their waistband so they have easy access to these useful disposable snot rags.

So why are these people handing out tissues for free? Well, this is a common form of advertising over here known as ‘tissue-pack marketing’. Stuffed into the tissues is an advertisement, something you might decline if offered by itself but with tissues, sure. Why not?

It’s a novel way to get the company’s message directly into the hands of potential customers.

In the past, free matchboxes were often given out as promotional items but as smoking has declined, tissues are seen as a more practical and more universally appealing giveaway.

How effective it is, I’m not sure. I was once asked to stand outside the building I was working at and hand out these promotional tissue packs.

When I enquired about how many walk-in new customers this tactic generated I was told about four in a thousand. That didn’t sound too effective to me but I’m no expert on advertising.

Nevertheless, it’s still a very popular practice in Japan.

Now, back to my original question of why I can’t have them. To be honest, I have on occasion been offered these tissues. Sometimes I’ll politely decline. Other times I’ll take them and discard the advertisement.

Usually though, the outstretched hand offering the tissues is withdrawn when they look at my face.

Is this racism? No, not at all.

The problem lies in the widespread assumption that most foreigners in Japan, particularly those who look foreign, can’t speak Japanese.

Handing out an advertisement to someone who won’t understand it is pointless they think. This neglects the possibility that the person might be fluent in Japanese, might understand it enough to use the service being advertised or at least might pass it on to someone else who can.

Why am I in such desperate need of free tissues? Why not buy a pack if I need them? They’re not expensive.

Well, it’s not the tissues I want, it’s something else. Something intangible.

It’s simply the desire not to be reminded that I am ‘other’, that because of the way I look, I don’t fit in.

Watching each commuter ahead of me being offered tissues only for the vendor to look the other way and pretend they haven’t seen me when I pass makes me hyper aware that I don’t belong.

Now I choose to live in this racially homogeneous country and I have no problem with the fact that I’m different. I love it here. I’m not Japanese, have no desire to be and that’s fine.

However, I’d just like the opportunity to get on the train without having to think about that every morning. So please tissue people, treat me like everyone else and offer me tissues. You never know, I might turn out to be one of the four in a thousand who gives your company business.

Have you experienced something similar? Let me know, down below.