Japan love their tissues

One of the cultural differences I noticed early on in Japan is the difference in the use of tissues in comparison to my home country. In my home country few people carry around a packet of tissues, even fewer still have a large box of tissues anywhere in their house. When I was a child there was one family on my street that always had a large box of tissues in their living room. It was so unusual that I remember that detail to this day! But, in my experience, Japanese people have boxes of tissues not just in the living room, but on the dining room table and in each bedroom and they also carry packets of tissues in their bags too.

Part of this has been influenced by kindergarten and nursery practises, where parents have to provide the preschool or nursery with tissues for their child.  Children thus get used to carrying around a packet of tissues in their pocket. No doubt the free tissue givers, as a promotion tool, on the street have also played a role. But which came first - the frequent carrying around of packets of tissues or the handing out of free packets of tissues on the street!? I don't have the answer unfortunately.

Today is tissue day;  "T" for October, the tenth month and "Shu" as a reading of four, combined "T-shu"! The first tissue in Japan was released in 1964. But tissue paper originated in the United States. It would seem Americans use even more tissue paper than Japanese, I find that so hard to imagine given how much is consumed here. But Japan is also quite high on the list of tissue consumption per capita too, ranking at number three, just after China. Meanwhile my homeland, Ireland, isn't even in the top 40!