Foreign business chambers urge Japan to speed up vaccine rollout

This is interesting, I think business pressure from outside might actually light a fire under their behinds.

They can't speed up something that they don't have the resources for. All the Dr's are tied up with COVID patients, so there is no time to Vaccinate!

A 27 May opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal recommends that U.S. embassies distribute vaccines to its citizens abroad. Excerpt below.

Americans living overseas are U.S. taxpayers and should have the same access to free vaccines funded by their tax dollars.

There are no significant hurdles for the U.S. government to ship Covid vaccines around the world and administer them to Americans living abroad. The State Department confirmed on April 20 that it has sent to each U.S. embassy sufficient vaccines to administer to all American employees. Each embassy also maintains a list of Americans who have registered their contact details, and unregistered Americans could easily be reached through the American communities in each country. All that would be required to administer vaccines in an orderly manner to Americans overseas would be to create an online sign-up system.

The Americans Who Can’t Get Vaccines, Michael George DeSombre and Scott Brown, 27 May 2021

This will fall on deaf ears. Japan doesn't give a fart for foreign residents or businesses.

Time to get the embassies involved.

There is a small problem; advanced economies can’t expect less developed nations to behave as they do...

More or less anyone could watch a 10 minute video and have the knowledge and skill to stick a needle in someone's arm and push the plunger. It doesn't have to be a doctor or a nurse! In an emergency, ordinary rules don't apply. When the house is burning down, do you wait for the firemen, or throw buckets of water on the fire yourself?

They can't speed up something that they don't have the resources for.

That's kind of misleading. They had the resources until recently, in the form of thousands of Indonesian and other foreigner nurses whom the govt sent home after determining that Japanese people, mainly the old ones, dont trust/like foreigners and also making them pass a ridiculously difficult language exam.

It took until very recently to allow medical staff non-doctors and non-nurses to give the vaccine. And the large centers will shut down in 3 months' time when the general population will still be unvaccinated, and the govut will be distracted and made extra busy by the Olympics, Meanwhile, millions of unused vaccines are now piling up.

Japan's saga is mostly one of bigotry, stubbornness, short-sighted decisions and a reluctance to take quick action.

In the last few days, the nationwide rollout has been accelerating. With more facilities scheduled to be open as vax centres, I assume that the government's primary goal of 1 million jabs per day is nearly possible in a month or by early July (But perhaps more realistic range is between 500-700k jabs per day).

“Thelonius”

getting the embassies involved ? Clearly you have a romantic idea of them caring for citizens. The diplomats first worry was to get themselves and their families vaccinated as my Belgian diplomats did. Then to lock themselves up and keep their compatriots very far away and close as much as possible. Recuse any real effort and explain everything they do not do.

they are the last to care

I seriously hope major countries in the world are seeing and understanding how absurd Japan is in handling all of this.

Hopefully there will be consequences of some kind towards the Japanese government when all of this is done.

But then again that’s all just wishful thinking.

Interesting that they have vested interests in peddling their emergency vaccines and would sanction anybody who buys cheap Russian or China vaccines.

"Barring entry of foreign residents of Japan without any scientific evidence that they pose more risk to public health than returning Japanese nationals is both discriminatory and ineffective public health policy," the statement said.

exactly! We've been saying this since the Pandemic started. Cue the rightists and apologists in 3 2 1...

It seems like Japan would like nothing better than a return to Tokugawa Edo closure. At this rate, the country will not open till 2022. I wonder who is profiting from all of this? Mask producers?

It seems like Japan would like nothing better than a return to Tokugawa Edo closure.

absolutely. In spite of the lack of tourists and money coming from it, you hardly hear anyone complaining. they are more up in arms about their restaurants and bars closing early.

The Japanese government don't know what they're doing. Someone else needs to come in and get everyone vaccinated.

We already knew that when the Nippon Kaigi took the helm of the government things would have gradually change to the worse,have you checked their site and their goals?

One of them is to restore the proud of “beautiful Japan” from the pre WW2 era.

The pandemic in the end was an excellent excuse for these old right wingers to restrict rights and purge many foreigners from the country as it is obvious that with such elements will continue in their blind and stubborn goal to restore their “superiority”

I am so very sure that many expats in Japan regretted to make such place home because it isn’t.

But at least it’s good that such associations put Japan’s draconian and discriminatory rules into the international eyes.

"They criticized the government's ban on the entry into Japan of foreign nationals traveling from certain South Asian countries such as India hit by surging coronavirus cases, saying the move was not based on public health principles."

LOL,  Australia and New Zealand, Canada and the United States as well as the European Business Council.

all do the same thing:

Biden bans most travel to U.S. from India to limit COVID-19 spread

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/05/01/world/politics-diplomacy-world/us-india-travel-coronavirus/

It is ok for the US to ban travel to India, but not Japan????

I have to be fair and state this, American and Canadians friends living in Japan and over the age of 65 got their vaccine shots on the 25th. of May and doing well.

"Barring entry of foreign residents of Japan without any scientific evidence that they pose more risk to public health than returning Japanese nationals is both discriminatory and ineffective public health policy," the statement said."

Maybe they should talk to Aus.

10 million have received their first jabs.

With the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines? So, of after they have gotten the second jab, around 6 mil will be protected for around 6 months. That's just great! Lucky Japan is an occupied country otherwise they might have bought the far superior jabs from China and Russia.

I fail to understand why the Japanese government has failed so miserably to get the vaccines into people's arms. Japan is a very modern country, so what is the hold up?

The article mentions using embassies to help distribute vaccines. I would suggest that not only embassies, but also consulates and military bases should try to make as many vaccines available as possible. For instance, military bases could rationalize making vaccines available to Japanese nationals and their families who work on the bases. If that program met with success, the military bases could open their doors to anyone who wants to get a vaccine who has access to the base.

BTW, the statement that the Chinese and Russian vaccines have a higher efficacy rate that either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines is ludicrous. Both of the vaccines from Asia are better than nothing, but do not come close to the American/European vaccines. As for how long any of the vaccines will be effective, no one knows, because they were all released under emergency conditions. At first the manufacturers said, well, we now know that they are good for at least two months. After six months, they said that they were now confident that they were still effective. After nine months, another determination will be made. Normally, comprehensive tests would be done that could give us a good idea for how long a drug or vaccine remains effective, but under the emergency conditions of this pandemic, there was no time to do things that way.

If any good at all will come of this it’s that the rest of the world can now see how discriminatory and backward japan really is and not get fooled.

"Japan should return to its previous approach, the approach of other G-7 (Group of Seven) countries, that allows foreign nationals with established residency status and their immediate family members to depart and enter the country on the same basis as Japanese nationals," the organizations said. "We ask that the government amend these rules immediately."

I don't think they can ban Japanese from entering their own country, am I correct? So it was either allow all of the people coming from India in, or at least block some of them.

Some JT posters like to slag off "the West" at every opportunity but, mark my words, the West is going to emerge from this pandemic long before Japan does. Western countries have been much more effective at getting their people vaccinated - my friend in California got his injections at his local supermarket. That's a far cry from Japan which has a vaccination program moving forward at the speed of a tectonic plate.

The West is the Best! LOL. Back to you.

Name and shame - it’s about time! I am so puzzled why Japan is behaving like a pitiful & helpless 3rd world country, I’m glad to see someone calling them out on it, besides us commentators on JT. I want to see more of this.

Japan: We don’t have resources, we can’t close busineses, our medical system (5% of it) is collapsing, we can’t work from home, we can’t tabulate this many test results, we can’t test that many people, we can’t work together to solve problems....

America: Uh, why not? We did it while half the country was literally closed, with minimum gov’t bail outs, record unemployment, and a lousy healthcare system... while millions of our people were sick and dying. Sure we were also rioting and partying on beaches with no masks, but that’s to be expected.... we don’t have the self discipline of a country like Japan.

What are they going on about. The prime minister has already promised 1,000,000 vaccinations a day. Even though it is only about 1/3 of that since he made his promise he repeated the promise again last night. Pesky foreigners just listen to PM he has already exceeded their advice with his firm promise to the public.

From above: ""Barring entry of foreign residents of Japan without any scientific evidence that they pose more risk to public health than returning Japanese nationals is both discriminatory and ineffective public health policy," the statement said."

This policy was started by Abe on the racist assumption that foreigners carry diseases and Japanese are as pure as the day they were born. Keep the foreigners out and we're safe.

Well, you know what's happening now. Too many people sick with the virus and Suga and company are more worried about the Olympics.

Japan will kick into high gear now because they are being urged to do so? They need a plan, not encouragement.

This is interesting, I think business pressure from outside might actually light a fire under their behinds.

I'm guessing you haven't lived in Japan very long. Any pressure from outside will just make the Japanese dig their heels in harder. Look at whaling, parental abduction, and a whole host of other issues.

Excellent observation DB

The racism in Japanese immigration officials is so blatantly obvious with double standard hypocrisy. The immigration bureau is the worst with inhumane conditions for those detained leading to many deaths.

Some JT posters like to slag off "the West" at every opportunity but, mark my words, the West is going to emerge from this pandemic long before Japan does. Western countries have been much more effective at getting their people vaccinated - my friend in California got his injections at his local supermarket. That's a far cry from Japan which has a vaccination program moving forward at the speed of a tectonic plate.

The West is the Best! LOL. Back to you.

VERY WELL SAID Crusty!

Name and shame - it’s about time!

absolutely!

I am so puzzled why Japan is behaving like a pitiful & helpless 3rd world country,

Its always behaved this way. I'm not puzzled at all.

I'm guessing you haven't lived in Japan very long. 

13 years. Business pressure means loss of income and international trade, they will most certainly care about that.

You can still get, carry, and pass on covid even if you are vaccinated. The vaccine only makes your chance of showing symptoms less. That's all. If I wear a warm coat, it won't keep you from feeling the cold.

krustytheclownToday  10:18 am JST

Some JT posters like to slag off "the West" at every opportunity but, mark my words, the West is going to emerge from this pandemic long before Japan does. Western countries have been much more effective at getting their people vaccinated - my friend in California got his injections at his local supermarket. That's a far cry from Japan which has a vaccination program moving forward at the speed of a tectonic plate. 

The West is the Best! LOL. Back to you.

Excellent post Krusty!

In an emergency, ordinary rules don't apply. 

"Emergency"?? What emergency?

How does this even come close to an "emergency"? A survival rate of 99.97+%?

Who, in their right mind, considers that an emergency?!

Have people lost their minds so they are so easily manipulated by the fear mongering media?

Japan needs to do better?

Japan needs to perform better?

Foreign business chambers urge Japan to speed up vaccine rollout

Nope. EVERYONE urges Japan to speed up vaccine rollout

SylphToday  11:39 am JST

*You can still get, carry, and pass on covid even if you are vaccinated. The vaccine only makes your chance of showing symptoms less. That's all. If I wear a warm coat, it won't keep you from feeling the cold.*

No. This is incorrect, and I wish people would do more reading around this topic and stop making references to "The Vaccine". There isn't just one.

There arre multiple vaccines in play using different techonologies and with different efficacy Some drastically reduce the severity of symptoms which in turn reduces the need for hospitalisations, and possibly Long Covid. Yes you can still get it, but will be either asymptomatic, or have mild symptoms. Your ability to transmit the virus will also be greatly reduced. These tend to be the single shot vaccines

The new mRNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer) are now proving to be about 90% effective at blocking infections in the first place. They are now considered to be the gold standard for vaccines agains Covid.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid-vaccine-moderna-pfizer-transmission-disease

The United States, one of the countries ahead of Japan in vaccinations, warned its citizens earlier in the week not to travel to Japan due to the COVID-19 crisis and raised its travel alert to the highest of 4.

Addendum: the United States, one of the ninety nine countries ahead of Japan in vaccinations.

Japan has been giving vaccination priority to those aged 65 or older, before those in other age brackets with pre-existing conditions can get shots.

Addendum: but still hasn't even managed to give even the first vaccination to a large percentage of its priority group, health workers, and it will probably start on those with pre-existing conditions way before they manage to vaccinate over-65s

"Emergency"?? What emergency?

How does this even come close to an "emergency"?

Where is your head? It's okay, don't answer that, I don't want to know!

13 years. Business pressure means loss of income and international trade, they will most certainly care about that.

Most don't care about international trade. They would prefer not to sell. They are too arrogant and contented with their small. Was seeking estimates to ship a container and one of the companies fairly big wrote that things are due to the pandemic and they have decided not to do business with new entrants, try registering to buy from wholesalers and some will repeat the same line, not to talk of most will refuse to sell if they know the buyer is abroad. At times the people don't deserve any pity.

Meant small market

The country desperately needs a viable opposition party.

Didn't know there wasn't an opposition, The country first of all needs a bold, neutral and truely journalistic media before anything else, Any other party not leaving decision making to bureaucrats would have done better. There is no outcry from the media even when the arrogant John Coates says Japanese public opinion means zilch to the IOC, the statement is a slap on the face of Japanese people. most of the media didn't even mention it

Some JT posters like to slag off "the West" at every opportunity but, mark my words, the West is going to emerge from this pandemic long before Japan does.

You are a genius! How did you work out that? As @Aly Rustom stated; "Well said"! Given the number of infections (and deaths) "the West" has had compared to Japan and given they are using the same rubbish vaccines, I'm struggling to see any scenario where "the West" emerges from this sooner (but with many times more deaths per capita).

Japan could still emerge from it sooner if it rejected the rubbish vaccines from "the West" and bought Russian or even Chinese vaccines.

A 27 May opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal recommends that U.S. embassies distribute vaccines to its citizens abroad.

Just wrote to my embassy referencing this and requested the same. Suggest you all do this. I expect embassies are vaccinating their own people (I know mine has), so it is possible. If the domestic vaccine programme is going well, they should spare the resources for doing this, specially as one-shot vaccines (J&J) are now an option.

expatToday 01:43 pm JST

This may be the only way to get the LDP to do anything - they used to use the word gaiatsu for it. 70 years of one party "democracy" has led to sloth on the part of government, and contempt for the citizens. The country desperately needs a viable opposition party.

The LDP is also fully aware that if the people somehow manage to elect a government that actually puts its citizens first, it will will be immediately regime-changed by Washington, as happened to Yukio Hatoyama in 2010. Hatoyama and Ichiro Ozawa attempted an independent foreign policy and improved relations in NE Asia. They were soon removed.

@ Hamada if this is not an emergency then why does your own government keep declaring it as such and shutting down all sorts of small businesses? Why have I not been able to board an airplane in almost two years to go home and see my parents.?Why are millions losing their lives and livelihoods.? Give your head a shake, man!!

The big issue is the corruption in Japanese healthcare and this vaccine rollout is no exception. Why in earth did Takeda need to get involved in testing AND distributing the Moderna vaccine - because they wanted their piece.

In the healthcare space, everyone needs to get paid and maintains their patch at all costs. Doctors are given “commissions” to prescribe drugs and are given targets (this is a global problem too). The pharmacy is the symbiotic corruption benefactor and often placed next door or even in the same building and the clinic.

Psychologists, are not paid for by health insurance but psychiatrists are because the psychiatrists are more a more powerful faction and defend their income - I.e. making patients dependent on medication.

The government even admitted last week that it needs to financially incentivize private clinics (that’s nearly the entire healthcare system) to treat COVID patients. You can’t make this stuff up!!

I’ve lived in enough corrupt countries to know that where there is over regulation there is a system deliberately created for the purposes of corruption opportunities. Japan is a world leader in this.

I should clarify - it’s the pharmaceutical company that pays the “commission” to doctors and gives the target. I used to interview their sales people. Eye opening.

It obviously necessary to have everyone vaccinated ASAP, but unfortunately this simple fact was totally ignored by the super intelligent members of Japanese government. Aso said that Japanese are superior. All this and the lack of testing played in to the idea that, why spend money on something that would just blow over!

From the beginning questionable decisions were made. I find it extremely difficult to believe that Abe did not have 24/7 access to professional medical advice before spending billions on Abe-masks. So why do it? He wanted to do two things, first to be seen to be helping people and at the same time greasing palms of his friends who acquired the masks and in many instances sent out dirty and fungus infested masks which were not suitable for protection against viruses in the first place. Simply Googling "do cloth masks stop viruses" would have yielded a NO. But that was inconvenient to his purposes, so it was ignored. The total mismanagement of vaccinations is mind boggling and now Japan is at level 4!!! same as India! This will go in to history books or even the Guinness World Records for vaccination mismanagement of 3rd largest economy...

considerable resources

Just only forgot to name at least one. lol

My Embassy, the Belgian one FLATLY refused to even ask the ministry of foreign affairs. Of course the diplomats are vaccinated so why would they care

I fail to understand why the Japanese government has failed so miserably to get the vaccines into people's arms.

Rather, is it a fair assumption to assume that a central government trying to run such a scheme should typically succeed? And have you seen how out of date the local municipalities and their paper processes our versus the commercial, more free market type organizations?

Central government tends to fail at whatever it does. When it gets something right that’s close to a miracle, the rarity bit the norm.

The free market would have made a far better job of distributing vaccines.

I mean, who cares who is doing the jabbing? I don’t care if the government says a particular person is allowed to do the jab. Just let me choose myself if I trust the person.

Who cares if the government thought that clinical trials in Japanese people were required, despite evidence from Israel of the great results of the Pfizer vaccine?

The government has its fingers all through the pie, or rather, it’s like “sand in the gears”.

Government is just not an inefficient way of getting things done through a population.

We need people to recollect that we are generally all perfectly capable individuals and we can make decisions in a decentralized fashion by ourselves, there is no need for us to abdicate our individual responsibility for our own health to a bunch of people that don’t know us playing their power games in central government.

It obviously necessary to have everyone vaccinated ASAP, but unfortunately this simple fact was totally ignored by the super intelligent members of Japanese government. Aso said that Japanese are superior. All this and the lack of testing played in to the idea that, why spend money on something that would just blow over!

Nah, they tried to get the vaccines earlier, but the lack of testing did backfire there. The Pfizer boss said he would not prioritize Japan because they had such few cases.

The slow rollout after that is due to the ineptitude of local governments, but we'd be much further along right now if Japan got the vaccines faster.

From the beginning questionable decisions were made. I find it extremely difficult to believe that Abe did not have 24/7 access to professional medical advice before spending billions on Abe-masks. So why do it? He wanted to do two things, first to be seen to be helping people and at the same time greasing palms of his friends who acquired the masks and in many instances sent out dirty and fungus infested masks which were not suitable for protection against viruses in the first place. Simply Googling "do cloth masks stop viruses" would have yielded a NO.

I agree the abe-no-masks were completely unnecessary. Even ignoring the dirty ones, they were too small and didn't come until masks were already easy and cheap to buy again.

The articles saying cloth masks and sponge masks don't work are fake news though. I believe facebook even marked a post claiming that as fake news.

Where is your head?

I will tell you where my head is. It is in that place that looks at all the evidence and makes a rational decision.

A "pandemic" for which the survival rates is over 99% is not an "emergency" no matter how you look at it.

This is manipulation of the masses for control.

Why are people unable to see this?

Let me ask you a question. When have you heard ONE SINGLE OFFICIAL at the WHO, NIH, CDC or any other major government body EVER ask the question "Do people who have been infected and recovered from COVID-19 really need to be vaccinated?" This is a very important question that is not being asked. The same question was never asked about recovered people wearing masks, because it is and has always been about controlling people through fear. Fear is a very powerful tool.

Why are these questions not being asked? Because the decision has been made at some higher level that the goal is to vaccinate EVERYBODY, regardless of whether they need it or not.

If you took little Johnny to the doctor and the doctor said "I know Johnny had the Chicken Pox already, but we're still going to innoculate him against Chicken Pox" you'd think the doctor had lost his/her mind, right?

So, why are people so blindly following? Why aren't more doctors speaking out? Because of "cancel culture" which demands people follow the narrative or get ostracized, lose their jobs, or lose friends.

The politicization of this is criminal. It is staring you in the face. Open your eyes, please.

I understand that people over 65 are in the main risk group due to biological reasons and characteristics of the virus. But if turning off the feelings and thinking logically, would not it be more logical firstly vaccinate the breadwinner of the family, those who cannot stay at home and forced to ride in a packed metro every day, those who face many people every day due to their job?. I mean those supporters of the economy and taxpayers on whose funds those same pensioners live...

If I am fully vaccinated and have a negative PCR test before flying to Japan, do I need to quarantine?

If yes

Why?

If I am fully vaccinated and have a negative PCR test before flying to Japan

Because you might catch in the place, or something silly like that.

Until the SDF is out vaccinating people at 200+ different locations, Japan isn't doing enough.

Do people in Japan not know the death rates by age group? For each decade of age, the rate of death from COVID approximately triples. That's ballpark. The actual numbers are available.

Priority needs to be given by high-risk lifestyle and age. Those have to be considered first.

A 75 yr old senior who stays home, gardens, and visits the grocery store once a week, masked up is at a much lower risk than a 75 yr old senior who volunteers in a retirement community as an event coordinator and interacts with 200+ people daily.

People with health issues within an age group also need to be prioritized, since serious complications with COVID can happen when there are other health issues.

Bring in the HR departments for large companies. Work with them to get their people vaccinated ASAP for each group. Use a little corporate peer pressure when needed.

It isn't like Japan has to make up these rules all over again. Look at what other science-based countries did. Slight tweaks will be needed for Japanese culture, but the main ideas are all valid.

And whatever happens, don't waste any shots at this time. Get them into any arm possible, if people fail to show up for appointments. At the end of each day, sending walk-up people away is a good thing. It means no doses were wasted.

Every Friday, all the vaccine doses for the week should be in arms, waiting for shipments to arrive for the following week. 1 vile in = 1 vile used, every week.

"Japan should return to its previous approach, the approach of other G-7 (Group of Seven) countries, that allows foreign nationals with established residency status and their immediate family members to depart and enter the country on the same basis as Japanese nationals," the organizations said. "We ask that the government amend these rules immediately."

"Barring entry of foreign residents of Japan without any scientific evidence that they pose more risk to public health than returning Japanese nationals is both discriminatory and ineffective public health policy," the statement said.

What amazing arrogance. Yet, to be expected from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The USCC, is far to the right of center, an extremely conservative organization. Their stance on anything requiring scientific understanding is less than stellar and basically Neanderthal. Let alone should they be lecturing anyone on the planet about discrimination.

Barring entry of foreign residents, visiting places like India, is indeed an effective public health policy and it is the prerogative of the Japanese government to bar non-citizens. Flim-flam organizations such as the U.S. chamber of Commerce have absolutely no business interfering the domestic policies of sovereign entities. Apparently, the Chamber is unaware of the tragedy unfolding in India and the dangers of spreading the variants of the virus to other countries. Barring entry of non-citizens is not just sensible, it hews to actual science in terms of the understanding of disease vectors.

The U. S. Chamber of Commerce, is a strongarm organization working for corporate interests, less than democratic, it is one of the powers that created the health crisis that arose in 2020 due to the SARSCoV-2 and the inadequate response by institutionalized healthcare. The privatization of hospitals and the enormous costs of hospitalization and outrageous sums required for healthcare insurance. All which contributed to the dismal response within the USA. As if the US, is in any way a model for a response to the pandemic.

Shinichi Hamada.

3.5 million dead.

Johnny and the chicken pox, a ludicrous juxtaposition. Your analogy is neither clear nor accurate.

Cancel culture. What are you talking about? (that's rhetorical)

The scientific and medical communities are more than aware that there are those who have contracted the SARSCoV-2 and recovered. The natural immunity is limited and it is advised by the major health organizations, including those you mention.

The absurd assertion that since 99% have recovered (where exactly does that figure arise?) this is not an emergency illustrates a either a complete divorce from reality or a compounded ignorance: simply look at India, Brazil and the USA.

SARSCoV-2: Control of the masses. A vague statement with no corresponding factual evidence. Patently untrue.