What’s Happening to Japan as a Country During the Pandemic?
Already January is coming to an end. How is Japan doing with COVID-19 in 2021, one year after the corona-virus had become pandemic? Japan certainly is doing better compared to many countries in many respects but also falls short.
Citizens and residents alike enjoy a lot more freedom than elsewhere in the world where governments have greater authority to regulate people’s activities and punish violations of COVID-19 lockdowns, curfews, etc.
A Change in Leadership (or lackof)
For starters, the current prime minister Yoshihide Suga has inherited the situation after a long 8 year run by Shinzo Abe. Japan observers probably know that Japan’s government has been plagued by the lack of a strong leader at the helm of its central government.
Shinzo Abe seemed to be a hopeful sign when he became prime minister for the 2nd time back in 2012 with a message of revitalizing Japan. That seems so long ago but I remember how big a thing it was when the plan to raise consumption tax from 8% to 10% on most goods and services led to repricings and a giant spending rush right before it went into effect.
Japan banked a lot of its hopes on strengthening it’s position in the world by hosting what would have been the 2020 summer Olympics, the first to be held in Japan in since 1964 which had helped demonstrate the country’s recovery from world war 2 that had basically starved the nation and brought it to nationwide poverty.
I’ve no doubt that being the top political leader of a country is a high pressure job. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had pre-existing conditions that worsened under pressure while trying to form an effective plan to contain COVID-19 while protecting Japan from the negative impacts to the economy that would hurt people’s livelihoods. Things got so bad he coughed up blood and resigned back in September 2020.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga became the apparent successor as the standout candidate whose loyalty to the party and cabinet over the years distinguished him as being experienced and perhaps most abled to lead the country through these times of crisis. At first people had high hopes for him but things change…
Poorly Planned Policies or Desperate to Save the Economy?
The “GO TO TRAVEL” CAMPAIGN
During Shinzo Abe’s term, the government sponsored tourism campaign “Go To Travel” (often abbreviated as the “Go To” Campaign, helped the struggling tourism industry by encouraging Japanese citizens and even eligible foreign residents to travel within Japan as tourists. This was achieved by a generous subsidy to traveling and lodging costs topped off with a shopping voucher that could be used to purchase items at qualifying stores for souvenirs and such.
The program was so popular that it quickly ran out of money and was infused with additional funds. (I had heard of some isolated incidents where attempted forgeries of shopping vouchers were discovered and some were recalled as a result, but when I actually got the chance to take advantage of the campaign, it was an e-voucher that was automatically verified for authenticity.) But sadly this was all during the earlier days of the pandemic.
Sure, reported cases of COVID-19 were very low and sparse–mostly limited to supposedly isolated individuals in large cities– as well. However, there was also suspicion that the government was underreporting or deliberately slow to promote widespread testing for the virus. For months it seems the US and the rest of the world was restlessly searching for and distributing test kits. South Korea did so well just on the other side of the sea with wide spread testing compared to Japan, which seemed closed off in its own bubble and perhaps from reality.
The “GO TO” Campaign undoubtedly helped the tourism industry but at the cost of a responsible public health policy to properly contain COVID-19. The economic impact it made seemed popular with people and outnumbered those who seemed overly cautious. Despite the slow spread of COVID-19 within Japan, the program finally reached it’s tipping point near the end of 2020, when daily recorded new cases of COVID-19 positive individuals were in the hundreds every day.
More to come!…
One Chance Works 