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  2020-02

  Hoarding toilet papers in Japan

  Between the end of February to the beginning of March, people started to hoard toilet papers. This was caused by an SNS post, which was fake, stating “Toilet paper is made mainly in China, and due to the COVID -19, the importation of toilet paper will be very limited and the stock will be gone”. This post itself did not cause a huge hoarding situation. What caused the hoarding was the feeling of fear and anxiety. Because of COVID-19, people were put into a different situation than so-called normal, and on TV, there were people lining up to buy toilet papers where you can see that the store is having limited stock left caused people to think “I need to get some too”. However, the reality was that most of the toilet papers that are sold in Japan are made in Japan, and if everyone does not hoard, then there will be more than enough for everyone. Even though the news said that all toilet was made in Japan, people still were hoarding because other people were and felt like if they do not buy one, they will not get the toilet paper for a while. My mother was also hoarding a lot of toilet papers, and now we probably have a stock that will last for months. The image is an example of how stores looked like in the toilet paper section, where there were no toilet papers.