Many gov't offices, companies mark last business day of 2022 amid virus woes, scandals

"public health centers declaring a "desperate situation" amid an eighth wave of coronavirus infections,"

Time to start banning flights from Japan, I mean, if what they are doing regarding flights from China is truly out of safety concern.

"As the scandals have shaken people's trust, merely mentioning the company's name is enough to invite resistance,"

Something about reaping what's been sown. And "tangled webs from practicing to deceive".

Please ban all flights from China it is because of the Chinese government this pandemic has started.

Japan sounds a miserable dump nowadays.

Was so different in the mid 2000's. I'm probably glad I moved away, and a number of friends still there are hoping to do the same.

@Zizi

It is really.

Zizi: "Japan sounds a miserable dump nowadays."

Just wait until around 2030, when government misspending has made everything here completely unsustainable. Thousands of remote villages will be gone, taxes will have sky-rocketed, half the population will be of retirement age but will have to work (with retirement age going up to 70-75), there will be no more government pension despite people having paid into it their entire working lives, the economy will rank 7th in the world, most living-standards will be third-world, no children will be born except those who get pregnant by accident or to the super-rich, etc. This headline will seem quite the day in the park.

"As the scandals have shaken people's trust, merely mentioning the company's name is enough to invite resistance," said an employee, who works in sports-related businesses.

How does it matter in the least whether Dentsu has "the people's trust"?

Their employees will continue to be very well-paid. They will maintain their web of connections in government and media. They will continue to receive vast corporate welfare. Having a job at Dentsu will continue to have social cache.

It is like the financial industry, say Goldman Sachs. People didn't like bailing out the banker welfare queens.

But they still have connections at the deepest levels of government and college graduates want to join them to get rich.

Japanese corporations are suffering from the socialism for the rich corporate welfare blues.

“ "There is no holiday mood," said Mieko Harada, who heads a public health center in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, adding that the center has been struggling to cope with an influx of COVID-19 patients and to secure enough hospital beds since mid-December.

"I hope this will be the last year we have to worry about the coronavirus," said a senior health ministry official, who decided again this year to forego participating in year-end parties. “

IMHO, the most important thing is to be able to spend the new year with your family and loved ones(!);

Many gov't offices, companies mark last business day of 2022…

… going home now…; YES(!)

..

Happy New Year, everyone.

Just wait until around 2030, when government misspending has made everything here completely unsustainable. Thousands of remote villages will be gone, taxes will have sky-rocketed, half the population will be of retirement age but will have to work (with retirement age going up to 70-75), there will be no more government pension despite people having paid into it their entire working lives, the economy will rank 7th in the world, most living-standards will be third-world, no children will be born except those who get pregnant by accident or to the super-rich, etc. This headline will seem quite the day in the park.

Perfect description of the bleak future here in Japan. It's either this, or go the route of flooding the country with third-world migrants.

Just wait until around 2030

Alternately, Japan might be a nuclear wasteland by then...

Photo of Japanese commuters wearing masks shows commitment to helping to stop the virus from spreading . . . .

Japan is just like a corrupt third-world country.

Did you ever think maybe the dirty masks Japanese use are making them sick?

I took my Family out to a Chinese Restaurant last night, and unfortunately was sat next to a team wearing Tokyo 2020 neck lanyards, who "joked" a lot about Foreigners and money.... made for a quiet and tongue biting dinner....

Regardless of their "sake" intake, I still felt uncomfortable, which exemplifies why I sort of like Japan... it places me in the same position as minorities within my own Country, and puts me in their Position, so I sort of now know how they feel when placed in a similar position.... and also, know when they manipulate it for their advantage ( a scam, is a scam - regardless of which Country ).

interestingly the business outing, had it's own issues - a single person, full-of-himself, making all the comments/discussions, to which everyone else chirped in agreement from time to time. I felt, that most, really didn't want to be there... especially, the single Woman, whom he apparently had eyes upon, which... would be an interesting follow-up for JT ;-) Even as a Poll ... something along the lines of "In Japan, when you Boss says lets go out, do you really want to, or feel obliged to... And if you refused were you penalized ?"

"There is no holiday mood," said Mieko Harada, who heads a public health center in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, adding that the center has been struggling to cope with an influx of COVID-19 patients and to secure enough hospital beds since mid-December.

I hope Japanese tourists don't start traveling internationally soon.

I first stepped foot here in 1986. And Japan is waaaaayyyy better off now. Housing, infrastructure quality way better, cities and towns greener and cleaner. Food selection and quality massively better.

The challenge is to get Japan's greedy and rich corporate sector to share more of its bounty with the working people.