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Cardboard and plastic: Tottori Prefecture goes low-tech to protect officials from COVID-19

The Japan Times

In a nation famed for its cutting-edge robots and toilets, one prefecture is going defiantly low-tech in its effort to defend its officials against COVID-19. In what has been proudly dubbed a "Tottori-style office system," the Tottori Prefectural Government has begun using cardboard and plastic sheets as partitions between officials' desks. The use of cardboard boxes, which was requested in a notice sent to officials Tuesday, has already been implemented in many divisions within the prefectural office where space constraints prevent staff from sitting two meters away from each other, said Hideki Maeta, a human resources official. In fact, use of the partitions has even been adopted by other entities under the prefecture's jurisdiction, such as tax offices, Maeta said. "Almost all divisions have a stockpile of unused cardboard, so it's a very low-cost, immediate way of reducing the risk of droplet infections," the official said.