Japan hand dryer maker’s sales yet to recover from unscientifically proven COVID ban

en COVID ban

October 15, 2024

Tokyo Electron Co.’s President Seiichi Inoue looks at his stock of unsold hand dryers in the town of Aikawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, on June 12, 2024. (Mainichi/Akihiro Kawakami)

AIKAWA, Kanagawa — When the coronavirus pandemic hit, lots of countermeasures were thought up, including some that can be called unreasonable. Symbolic among these was the ban on restroom hand dryers that only Japan had imposed. Speaking with the Mainichi Shimbun, the head of one manufacturer wondered why something like that ever happened.

“Even now, I feel that it was damage caused by misinformation,” said 74-year-old Seiichi Inoue, the head of Tokyo Electron Co., a small-scale hand dryer maker based in Kanagawa Prefecture with five employees which is unrelated to a semiconductor firm also called Tokyo Electron.

The company’s industry took a severe hit during the pandemic, as trade organizations of hotels, supermarkets and other businesses included a ban on the use of hand dryers among infection-preventing guidelines that were released starting in May 2020.

“Unlike the major players, we’re a company that only makes hand dryers. It was a mortal blow,” Inoue said. Sales plummeted to around one tenth of the norm.

In contrast, Tokyo Electron’s sales sharply rose during the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic. Drying one’s hands without any contact was considered a way to prevent infection. When COVID-19 arrived, Inoue expected sales to go up and placed an emergency order for 300 hand dryers from China while increasing output from a related company in South Korea.

However, most of those 300 dryers went unsold, and Inoue couldn’t understand it. The World Health Organization, far from banning hand dryers, had recommended their use. As well, Japan was the only country in the world where a ban was issued. Inoue’s own experiments concluded that the risk of infection by using the devices was “extremely small,” and he published the results online.

Inoue trusted that once safety was scientifically established, the public would surely understand. However, a majority of the business groups did not budge to remove the ban.

The national government revealed its view in October 2022 that “hand dryers can be used.” While belated, a revision of the guidelines in accordance with scientific values was urged. However, “do not use” signs did not begin to be removed from many restroom dryers until the government downgraded the coronavirus to the same category as the flu in May 2023.

“In the end, it had nothing to do with whether it was scientifically valid,” Inoue recalled.

The businessman consulted one or more lawyers over the idea of suing the government, but rejected it after considering the cost and time investment. In the spring of 2022, to reduce costs, Tokyo Electron moved its headquarters from the Tokyo suburb of Tama to the town of Aikawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, where a factory of theirs is located. The nearest train station is a roughly a 50-minute bus ride away. Staff were also cut by about half. The company’s sales remain at no more than 40% of pre-pandemic levels.

“Why only Japan?” Inoue wondered with a hint of bitterness. “It’s really regrettable that once something is labeled ‘bad,’ it can’t recover.”