Trump Mask Maker Flooded With Orders

While much of the world anxiously awaits what happens under President-elect Donald Trump, one factory manager in Japan is all smiles. Ogawa Studio, the only manufacturer of rubber masks in Japan, is working feverishly to catch up with a flood of orders for Trump masks since his election victory last week, the AP reports. The 23 workers at the plant in Saitama, a city in Tokyo's northern suburbs, are trying to produce 350 likenesses of Trump a day, up from 45 before the US election, says Takahiro Yagihara, the factory's executive manager.

The masks emphasize Trump's characteristic hair and facial expression. They are first spray-painted to add natural tan to the skin and yellowing to the hair. Then an employee hand-paints details such as blue eyes for a lifelike resemblance. Yagihara says most customers wear the masks for year-end parties and other social gatherings. They cost 2,400 yen ($22) each and are available in Japan at toy and retail stores and on internet shopping sites. The company also makes masks of Hillary Clinton and President Obama, along with many other Japanese and international politicians and celebrities. (More Donald Trump stories.)