Unwanted 'Abenomask' now in high demand

Boxes of surplus cloth masks sit in a warehouse outside Tokyo in December last year. (Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

The cloth masks that no one seemed to want early in the pandemic are now in hot demand.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, looking to disburse 80 million cloth masks left over from a 2020 government distribution campaign and currently in storage, said Monday it has received requests for more than 280 million.