Prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe announced on 01 April 2020 that the government would provide two cloth face masks per household due to lack of masks sold for public. Also the mask price extremely went up.
PM Abe also told the public that the same type of mask which he was wearing would be delivered. The mask can be washed and reused longer than other normal surgical masks. However, the size of the mask seemed to be quite small and other ministers were not wearing this mask.
PM Abe appeared to public all the time with this small mask and soon the mask was called as Abenomask - Abe's mask. Delivery of the mask started on 17 April but later a lot of masks were found dirty and therefore the distribution was interrupted.
The government has announced that masks would be delivered to all households within May but the state of emergency had ended. Then, supplies of masks are now getting normal and the price has dropped. Therefore many Japanese are not expecting Abenomask at all.