I Made Masks in Earnest for 5 Years Since That Spring and Received 54 Gold Medals

Five years ago, I was suddenly told by someone in the government.

“Sharp, could you make masks for us?”

Huh? We’re an electronics manufacturer, you know? Right?

The world at the beginning of 2020 was just starting to see the spread of a new viral infection, and there was a severe shortage of masks, so our chairman at the time

“Sharp must do this for the sake of society!”decided.

That’s right. Someone had to do it, that’s all. Before I knew it, I was in the factory making masks instead of LCD panels.

Even though it was still chilly early spring, I was sweating, and after we desperately made them and delivered them, the government officials were so happy and asked us, “Could you please sell these domestically produced masks to the general public as well?”

So, when we put them up for sale on Sharp’s e-commerce site, the traffic was higher than expected and the server crashed. Probably nearly a million people flooded the site. We were flooded with complaints saying, “It won’t connect!”

Even when I was at the factory, my stomach would tighten during those spring days. Everyone was waiting for masks. We absolutely could not stop the factory. It was tough. More than my heart, it was my body. Every day was a battle.

But you know, after that, we kept making and selling masks, and when we announced on November 2024 that we were ending the lottery sales and would“start general sales!”so that everyone could get them whenever they wanted,

“Thank you.”
“Thank you for making masks during those difficult days.”
We received54 letters of gratitude.

They were all long. Sometimes a single short sentence like a tanka poem. When I read between the lines, my chest tightened, and I just couldn't take it anymore; the PC screen blurred. Trying to hold back the tears, I printed out all the emails and posted them at the entrance of the factory’s clean room.

“I wanted to say a word of thanks that I couldn't say back then to Sharp, who decided to produce domestic masks during that pandemic.”

I was the one who wanted to say thank you. We were. Sharp’s feelings had truly reached someone.

The
“Five Years of Storm and Stress in Mask Development & Sales”that the Sharp Group worked on together. This is the story from that day to today. It’s a bit long, but I’d like to write it down here.

The reason Sharp ended up making masks

That was inmid-February 2020. I was an employee of a Sharp Group company, producing LCD panels at a factory in Taki-gun, Mie Prefecture.

Then, a strange rumor started to circulate.

“Sharp is going to make masks.”

Sharp’s factories have clean rooms. These are specially purified spaces designed to keep dust and dirt to an absolute minimum for manufacturing precision equipment like LCD panels.

Because they have those clean rooms, the government supposedly requested them to manufacture masks. Was this rumor true, a lie, or just an auditory hallucination?

The 5W1Hs were spinning around in my brain.
When (When do we start?)
Where (Which factory? Taki in Mie, or Kameyama? Osaka, Nara, or Hiroshima?)
Who (Who? We don’t have any experienced people, right?)
What (What? Oh, masks, right)
Why (Why Sharp? Oh, the clean rooms)
How (How do we make them? No way, no way, no way!)

While I was spinning, on 2/28, production was decided. The rumor became reality.

“We will produce them at the four Taki factories.”
“The first delivery is 120,000 masks. The deadline is 3/31.”

At the fourth factory where I am? 120,000 masks when we’ve never made a single one? And delivery in one month? Surprise!

I had zero mental preparation, but once it was decided, being an adult means you just have to do it. After all, the world was short on masks. If Sharp doesn’t do it, who will?

So, I looked into how to get mask manufacturing equipment, but the lead times were all way off in the future. The parent company found some manufacturing equipment and brought it from Taiwan to Japan. Problem solved for now, I gave a (small) fist pump in my heart.

Along with the machines, the equipment operators came to Japan and taught us how to operate and maintain them.

……But, you know.

The language the operators spoke was Chinese.
The labels on the equipment and the manuals were also in Chinese.

Do I understand Chinese, you ask? No way. Japanese only. My memory is hazy because I was so panicked, but I don’t think there were even any interpreters. So I couldn’t understand the detailed explanations.

But we had no choice but to do it. We gathered mask materials from scratch, the technical department decided on the mask shape and specifications, and every other department crossed group boundaries to gather and make preparations. We even brought in another machine.

What was happening on the production floor at that time

Preparations were complete. Now we could finally start production. The time was already 3/24. One week until the deadline. Mask manufacturing equipment, switch on!

……But, you know.

This machine is free-spirited. It makes masks in a relaxed, original, and unique way.

Now, it's time for a rant.
[Feel free to skip]

Lots of defects. Defects are free. As a serious person, I had never encountered such chaotic defective products before.

LCD panelLet's compare it with defective products.

An LCD panel is made up of millions of tiny dots. These dots flicker or change color to show images and pictures.
However, when displaying a completely black image, there is sometimes a single dot that glows white. This is a 'bright spot.' A defect with a cool name.

In inspections, the criteria for these bright spots are incredibly detailed, such as 'Pass if there are X or fewer! Fail if there are more' or 'Pass if it's X microns or smaller! Fail if it's larger.' A micron is 1/1000th of a millimeter—it's practically invisible. I'll also chant a spell.

'LCDs must have no foreign matter and no unevenness'

I want to hang that on a scroll. If an LCD panel has foreign matter or unevenness, it's out.It is a major premise that there is none.

So, that machine. It's too free. It's funny now, with such a rich variety. But at the time, I couldn't laugh at all.

To rehabilitate the defects, I also had the equipment group come over.Our proud group of craftsmen. But naturally, masks were outside their expertise. When we said, 'We made this mysterious mask,' everyone would ask, 'Why?' and we would search for the cause from scratch and make adjustments.

Thanks to their craftsmanship, the machine adjustments gradually improved and the quality went up, but it was difficult to judge, 'It's off by 1 millimeter. Is this a product we can give to customers?' Since it was a product outside our expertise, deciding the OK line for the finished product was a struggle. Because we started with, 'Are the ear loops attached properly?' If there are no ear loops... they can't be used, that's the level we were at.

As a former LCD person who had competed in a world of a few microns, my heart sank at a 1-millimeter deviation.

So, from there on, I wentfull-on perfectionist. While gradually solidifying our ideal production standards, I also made quite a few unreasonable demands on the equipment group that adjusted the machine.

'I want the nose fitter length a little longer!'
'I want the gather height perfectly aligned!'
'I want the bonding of the ear loops and non-woven fabric adjusted to this exact position!'

The attention to detail was so fine that battles broke out. Opinions clashed. Deadlines were approaching. Even so, I insisted on quality. Because that isthe very essence of Sharp, being Sharp.

I also continued to work on ways to reduce defective products and improve the equipment.

The ear loops are packed tightly in a box in a bundle. We pull them up and feed them into the machine, but they get tangled and messy immediately. So, what did we do?

Weput a ping-pong ball inside the box. The light weight presses down on the ear loops, allowing them to be pulled out smoothly. This was an invention by the ear loop supplier. A genius. Applause.

Even so, they still get tangled sometimes.

That's where the ear loop flapper developed by the equipment group comes in. It flaps around, tapping, shaking, and loosening the tangled ear loops. It's simple, but it works. It's genius. Standing ovation.

The finished masks are not justspot-checked, but 100% inspected. No cutting corners. That hasn't changed from the beginning until now.

That's not all. We joined the industry organization, the Japan Mask Industry Association, and properly obtainedcertification. Masks that meet strict standards for quality, manufacturing, and hygiene management can display this member mark. If you ever get lost looking for a mask, just look for a product with the "JHPIA Japan Mask Industry Association Member" mark on the package.

If I keep obsessing over quality like that, oh no, time is just melting away. At this rate, I won't make the deadline!

The first week from the start of production to the first shipment

Finished masks pop out of the mask manufacturing machine one per second. We report that number to our superiorsevery two hours.

My superior is reliable, saying, "If a creative mask production trouble occurs, call me no matter what time it is in the middle of the night, even if I'm sleeping at home." In fact, when I had trouble and called, my superior immediately contacted the equipment group's superior, almost begging, "Please, I'm begging you, someone go help them, please save them." A late-night human drama unfolds.

It's automated with machines now, but at first, the 100% inspection of masks, assembling the flattened paper boxes into 3D shapes, packing the masks into bags, and putting them into the paper boxes were all done by hand.

The Japan Mask Industry Association mark I boasted about earlier didn't make it onto the initial shipment's package printing because there wasn't enough time between the application and certification. We had no choice but to make them into stickers and apply them. Everything was done by hand.

To begin with, even the machines needed for automation were found using a primitive, brute-force method of searching on online video sites. It was a manual operation of watching videos released by machine manufacturers and searching, "Is there a good automatic optical inspection device for checking masks?" or "Is there a good automatic packaging machine for individual wrapping of bundled masks?"

Before we automated the work, there was no time to sit down. There was no time to look away. The only time we could stop our hands was when that machine had trouble. But even then, because we had to "fix it," we still couldn't sit down. We could never sit down.

We don't have enough people. Nowhere near enough. So we go with a human-wave strategy. Not just from the four Taki factories, but we mobilized people from factories 1, 2, and 3. From departments outside the factories, from other areas, we
mobilized the entire Sharp Group. We operated with a 60-person system at the launch, and in the end, the total number of people involved in production was300 people.

Dozens of people came to help every day on a rotating basis. Every day, we performed antigen tests, and we had to say "I'm sorry" and send home anyone who was even slightly suspicious or a close contact.

While being scolded by the support team, "Where am I supposed to go!" "Why isn't it decided!" "Are you incompetent!", I would apologize and give instructions through a megaphone.

While working on the production line, I was talking to the older guy next to me, saying, 'This is tough, isn't it?' 'Yeah, it really is.' I found out later that he was actually a high-ranking department manager.

Every day, we recorded the number of completed units on the computer checklist.
One staff member wrote,
'15 cardboard boxes remaining'
'Must meet the shipment! We'll definitely get it done!!'
What is this, a coming-of-age story? Is this a school festival?

So, on the day before the first shipment,March 30th, 8:00 PM.
Even though all the shipment items should have been ready by now,It's still not finished!

We hurriedly stopped the LCD panel production line in another factory, called in all the night shift workers, and everyone made a desperate final push. Before I knew it, the date had changed.

……We tried our best, but I guess it's impossible now.

Masks have disappeared from store shelves in town, high-priced reselling has become a problem, and the government is waiting for masks, but I guess we won't make it in time.

A heavy atmosphere hung in the airMarch 31st, 3:00 AM.

We did it.
124,000 masks.

2,480 cases of 50 masks each.
62 cardboard boxes.
Looking at the mountain of cardboard boxes piled up high, I thought, '...Oh, we actually did it.' It's hard to believe, but we did it.

Government officials came to the factory to pick them up. The machine in question was still grinding away for the next delivery. Only those who were free gathered in the middle of the factory. The government official said, 'Thank you so much!!' and those words, somehow, really struck a chord in my heart.

We carried the mask boxes one by one by hand and packed them until the truck bed was full.

We closed the truck doors and watched as the truck left the factory and headed into town. (I even took a video without realizing it.) The sky was faintly turning white, and the signs of dawn were filling the air.

Someone had left a note on the computer checklist saying,'We did it!'Yes, we did it. But this was just the first shipment today.This will continue for a long time.The battle had only just begun.

What was happening at the EC site at that time

After delivering all the masks requested by the government, starting in the spring of 2020, we decided tosell maskson the Sharp Group's EC site, 'COCORO STORE'.

The preparation period was less than a month. Alright, let's sell them on a first-come, first-served basis! I wonder if we'll get around tens of thousands of hits?

And then came April 21st.

An emergency occurred! We couldn't access the site at all!
More people than we imagined flooded the site, and the server was overloaded.

Moreover, as a result, the AIoT functions of Sharp home appliances connected to the same network were affected, and even cloud services became unusable.

“It’s over…”
The members of the EC site team turned pale, realizing the gravity of the situation. We tried to restore it, but the system wouldn't budge at all. We hurriedly changed the system, isolated the network for mask sales, and decided to switch to a lottery-based sales system.

And then came April 28th.

The weekly lottery sale began. For the first round, there were about 4.7 million applications, and we sent winning emails to 40,000 people.The winning odds were about 118 times.

Thinking back, when the server went down last week, surely even more people must have been trying to access it. Against our expectation of tens of thousands, we opened the lid to find millions. We had underestimated it. We were truly sorry.

Even so, the feedback we received from customers who purchased the masks was generally favorable, which we were grateful for.
Occasionally, a straight punch would fly in, hitting me right in the ribs. At first, someone even said, “It feels like my ears are going to be torn off.” I would read the comments, feel down, and dwell on them for days. My mental state was like tofu.Now, I’ve changed them to super-soft ear loops. My mental state is infinitely positive.

Complaints and requests that reach the “COCORO STORE” inquiry desk are also fed back to the development and production departments.
Using the genuine voices of our customers—such as “the ear loops are too short/too long” or “the mask is too narrow/too wide”—as hints, we refined the masks down to the smallest details, over and over again, brushing them up to create the standards we have today.

The COCORO STORE team worked just as hard as the production team.
They launched new services, saying, “Let’s do a subscription service!” and they were deeply involved in the commercialization of the pleated masks as well as the Sharp Crystal Mask by saying, “Let’s make 3D-shaped masks, not just pleated ones!”

Now, our mask lineup is well-stocked.

The pleated masks come in regular and small sizes.
The Sharp Crystal Masks are available in large, regular, and children's sizes. It’s exciting that beige and pink bi-color types have also been released.

From that spring day until today, five years later, everyone has been thinking only about masks, pouring all their wisdom and affection into them.

Come to think of it, other companies that started producing masks around the same time as Sharp disappeared from the market in no time.
There are probably many people who think, “Wait, is Sharp still making masks?” Among them, there are also many people who like Sharp masks and have been using them all along.

Messages arrive one by one through the inquiry desk and product reviews.
“My child loves them and has been using them ever since.”
“I can’t go back to anything other than Sharp masks now.”

Just as we were rejoicing that there is nothing happier than this, an even more surprising development was waiting for us!

From lottery to general sales. 54 thank-you emails received

When we announced that we would end lottery sales as of November 2024 and switch to general sales so that everyone could get them whenever they wanted,we received as many as 54 thank-you emails!54 thank-you emails!

There were those who were surprised that Sharp was making masks and expressed their respect for us for taking action under the social conditions of that time.

There were those who thanked us, saying how much they were saved by the masks that arrived while they were covered in anxiety over the new viral infection.

There were also medical professionals. They said that Sharp's masks were a support during the mask shortage.

There were also those who said that although they couldn't buy many masks, they would continue to buy Sharp products whenever they chose home appliances in the future to show their gratitude.

Many people sent emails to our inquiry desk, saying, 'There was no comment section on the survey response form, so I'm sending it here instead.'

I was so happy, so incredibly happy, that I posted them all at the entrance of the factory. Ah, I truly felt that I was glad I made masks. Beyond these 54 messages, there might be people who feel the same way even if it's not visible on the surface.

When we were producing LCD panels at the factory, we didn't really hear or imagine the voices of end users directly like this. Behind panel production, there is a long, long process until it becomes a finished product. You don't really get directly praised with, 'Hey! That LCD panel is well made!'

Once I directly touched the feelings of the end users on the other side through the masks, my sense of responsibility for my work increased significantly. We absolutely cannot release anything of poor quality. We must ship on this day to deliver to our customers.

And I still remember it even now.That night in December 2023.The new viral infection had already shifted to Category 5, and daily life had returned to the streets.

The members who had been making masks together were also gradually returning to their original departments or being transferred, scattering in different directions.

Truth be told, I wanted to drink and thank each other and talk during that tough spring. But back then, a drinking party was a dream within a dream. We couldn't gather as easily as before, and three years passed without being able to keep our promise. We kept saying for three years, 'Let's go out for a drink once the new virus settles down.'

Finally, in December 2023, we held our first, and surely the last, year-end party with these members, which also served as a farewell party.

At that table, I presentedgold medalsto all the members who had come to support us. The shiny ones I bought at a 100-yen shop.

'Thank you so much for all your help until now.'
'We're going back, but keep producing the masks! We're counting on you!'
'Leave it to me! Let's both do our best!'

I wonder if I still have the gold medals. Maybe they've gone somewhere by now. Even so, that's fine. Because I won't forget. I will always remember that night.

Since that spring day five years ago, the masks we have been desperately making and delivering are still protecting someone's life today.

As of March 24, 2025, the cumulative number of units shipped is approximately 480 million.

Sharp's masks will
continue to go as far as they can.

In our hearts,
54 messages and
countless invisible gold medals are still shining brightly.