I agree, but in this instance, it's just the headline that's poorly written and oniony. The article itself is almost anti-oniony; the government is just telling schools that it's ok to relax and use their own judgement rather than just blindly following the most severe recommendations they can find -- which, because Japan, they've largely been doing up until now.

Example quotes from the article:

> As masks have been excessively worn at schools, the education ministry also asked schools to take a sensible approach to mask usage by making their own rules specifying when students can take them off and through other measures.

> ...

> [The government's hygiene management manual] does not have a rule requiring all schools to have children eat lunches in silence, but in reality, many schools carry out such "silent lunches" out of consideration for the Japanese government's original COVID-19 guidelines.