By NAOKO KAWAMURA/ Staff Writer
May 18, 2020 at 17:19 JST
A worker stretches her neck for a moment while she continues sewing blue laminated nonwoven medical gowns without taking a break on May 12 in Tokyo’s Suginami Ward. (Naoko Kawamura)
Dozens of skilled seamstresses in Tokyo who normally would be turning out creations for the Paris Collections are now sewing gowns for health care workers battling the novel coronavirus outbreak.
The gowns are in short supply at medical institutions due to the pandemic. At Fashion Shiraishi, a sewing company in Tokyo’s Suginami Ward, all its approximately 30 workers are now making about 800 nonwoven cloth medical gowns a day using sewing machines.
Masahiro Shiraishi, 58, who heads the company, has been working to deliver the gowns to the government since he returned to Japan in early March from a business trip to see the Paris Collection.
Shiraishi also serves as the vice-chair of the Federation of Japan Sewing Industry Association, which comprises about 150 small and midsize sewing factories.
After the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry asked the association to sew the gowns, about 45,000 were completed by the end of April. The association is aiming to deliver some 1.4 million gowns by the end of September.
Union survey: Japan COVID-19 doctors lack fresh masks, hazard pay
May 17, 2020
1st workers’ comp OK’d for those who test positive through working
May 16, 2020
To fight shortage of face shields, company turns to boxy design
May 11, 2020
Olympic torch designer gives guide on making anti-virus shield
May 11, 2020
Mysterious mask brokers supply Tokyo businesses amid shortages
April 30, 2020
Breweries pivot to hard liquor that can double as hand sanitizer
April 28, 2020
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
