Just started catching up with the last month’s updates on this (a little gift to myself after getting some actual work done), and I was wondering if somebody could help me understand the unique combination of atmospheric conditions and Japanese physiology that results in:
Anyone who gets even a little wet in the rain will inevitably get a severe cold unless they immediately take a long bath.
Overwork (particularly studying or desk work) can cause people to pass out with a very high fever.
Colds and fevers are pretty much indistinguishable, and often resemble comas.
(We’ll just leave that sexual-arousal-nosebleed thing for another time.)
I'm no doctor scientist with a Nihongonese degree, but overworking does weaken a person's immune system severely, especially when done days on end. Japanese people work until they collapse, having often 16-18 hour work days, even sleeping at work. It's less of a cold and more of a severe sign of exhaustion, where the smallest things can make them fall ill.
Students are smiliar to a lesser degree, studying late into the night at their desks, usually not realizing how cold they are or in other cases finally catching up on their hobbies at night, because they kept working/studying all day. It's not a coincidence that many normal anime series have a 2AM timeslot.