As someone who discovered firsthand that karaoke microphones make good fomites (someone shared a nasty cold with me once, by way of a karaoke mic), I'd like to point out that this is a Very Bad Idea. --All the more so, since a lot of the karaoke venues in Japan include smallish private rooms, where the ratio of students to square feet (and, therefore, the opportunities for large droplet spread) can be quite high.
Is this an argument for not shutting down schools, then?
Probably not.
Unless a very high percentage of students from these closed schools are crowding into the karaoke joints or other venues where there is a relatively high risk of transmitting the flu, school closings are still likely to be more effective than not in slowing the spread of the virus.
Added to that, there are lots of different shapes and sizes of a mask that one must consider. There are the soft flexible masks that you can easily tie around your head. They are priced cheap and come in large quantities. They are referred to as medical masks. Another type of a mask that is more expensive than the first one is a form fitting type; this is pre-casted to fit the face of the user comfortably.
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