Prisoners lending hands in mask production amid virus outbreak

TOKYO, April 14 Kyodo - To aid society in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak, Japanese prisoners have been set to work turning out cloth masks and protective gear to help overcome shortages instead of the leatherware and carpentry goods they usually make. A total of around 100 inmates at prisons in Aomori in northeast Japan and Kyoto, Osaka, Kakogawa, Yamaguchi, Iwakuni and Takamatsu in western Japan are aiming to produce 66,000 masks per month to meet orders received from the private sector in March. Protective gear, meanwhile, which is in short supply on the medical frontline, is being produced at prisons in Kyoto and Osaka, with around 4,600 sets to be dispatched monthly. Prisoners in Tsukigata in northern Hokkaido as well as Yokohama near Tokyo are also preparing to join in their production. At the Mine Rehabilitation Program Center in western Yamaguchi Prefecture, housing first-time offenders, eight inmates have made around 1,800 cloth masks in total following a request from the city of Mine in late March. They were delivered to children in the city last week when the first-term opening ceremonies were held at elementary and junior high schools. Parents expressed gratitude for receiving them at a time of mask shortages in the country. The center, the first penal institution in Japan run through public-private cooperation, is planning to produce 4,300 more cloth masks and offer them to the elderly by the end of April.