The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© KYODOFormer Diamond Princess passengers mark 5 years since COVID outbreak
YOKOHAMA©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© KYODO
28 Comments
Login to comment
travelbangaijin
Not true, the pandemic started at Ginza 9 with the Chinese tourists that are dropped off and shop in Ginza. The first person infected was a cab driver who infected his mother and she passed away
Alongfortheride
You do not know that for sure but regardless if r not you are correct covid was always going to find its way to Japan so not a lot of use pointing the finger of blame.
Alongfortheride
Japan handled covid a LOT better than other countries.
WeiWei
This should be a case study on what NOT to do. Keeping people on board for nothing, keeping them separated from family for nothing.
Wrong on so many levels.
virusrex
Japan did not impose mandates because it was not necessary, people listened and things were suspended without the government having to force the people, masking was the same, there was never a "mask mandate" but pretending nobody masked in Japan is equally false.
Vaccination was also extremely well supported and allowed the survival of much more people than in countries where the issue was made political (and people died more if they were part of the political side against the vaccines). It was not the slowness of the response what saved people but the complete cooperation of the people with the science backed measures.
stonebuddha
Assuming that world death toll number is correct, that's an extremely large number of people. Also, while deaths were and surely still are more elderly than other age groups, we now know that the virus over time can severely affect people of all ages, including children, so I don't really understand the point about the majority being old. However, I don't really have any strong feelings about whether an investigation into this one particular incident at this point is necessary. I hoped the pandemic would put an end to cruise ships overall for both health and environmental reasons but I know that is wishful thinking...
ThePunisher
"The West" is not monolithic. Many Western nations handled the pandemic as well as possible, like Japan did, with people generally showing common sense and getting vaccinated. The death rates were accordingly lower than other places.
And then there was the US.
iknowall
This completely flies in the face of the reality of what took place in Japan.
tora
Rewriting history right before our very eyes.
virusrex
In other words there was no need to impose anything since the population has much more scientific literacy and value cooperation in the face of adversity.
Seeing how you are completely unable to argue this point that is not correct, it remains a baseless claim.
What part is being "rewritten" according to you? the huge adoption of vaccines or masks even without a mandate? because anybody in the country at that time can tell both things (the adoption and the lack of imposition) are true without problems.
virusrex
Doctors and experts clearly and explicitly said vaccinations had a very important role with the control of the problems during the pandemic in Japan, nameless people on the internet baselessly claiming the experts are wrong are not an argument, specially when they keep repeating this baseless claim without any reference to support it even after being challenged repeatedly.
When the disease spreads more, causes more hospitalizations and kill more patients in the unvaccinated people this argument becomes obviously invalid. Vaccines and boosters protect people, you have never been able to provide any evidence of the contrary, yet you try to mislead people into rejecting safe and effective medical intervention just because you want to disregard the scientific evidence. That is obviously not valid, and ethically inaceptable.
The vaccines are not rushed, the companies are not liability free, vaccination was not mandated and it does reduces infection and transmission (not to mention complications and deaths) It also prevents the much more serious and common myocarditis and sudden deaths by covid.
Repeating debunked antivaxxer propaganda claims do nothing to refute the scientists and doctors of the world that clearly say vaccines are one of the best things that happened for medical science recently.
And no, the excuse of everybody being in a global conspiracy is not an argument either, it does not work for flat earther and creationists, it does not work for antivaxxer claims either.
kohakuebisu
It's nice of the passengers to remember those that died. Good on them for caring.
There is no mention of whether the ship operator did anything, but that doesn't surprise me. It wouldn't surprise me if cruise ships today are as unprepared for mass medical events as this one clearly was.
dan
Japan handled it fine unlike the West etc .
grc
A story of shame for Japan. I remember a doctor’s video of conditions on board being removed by the authorities. And tests withheld because ‘they might be needed later’.
Jay
Nope. The high survival rate here had far more to do with an overall healthier population, lower obesity rates, and a cultural tendency to avoid close contact when sick - not some miraculous "vaccine" compliance. In fact, the government was not quick to roll out the shots compared to Western nations, yet somehow still had far lower mortality.
Meanwhile, the heavily vaxxed countries saw skyrocketing excess deaths and multiple "boosters" shoved down people’s throats, yet the virus still spread like wildfire. You need to stop pretending it was "complete cooperation" with pharma-backed mandates rather than common sense and healthier lifestyles that kept Japan ahead.
Jay
Having said that, post Diamond Princess saga the Japanese government really screwed the long-term residents and PR visa holders - people who have built their lives here - as they were LOCKED OUT like unwanted guests. Families were split up - sometimes for more than a year - and people lost jobs. Absolutely disgusting response.
Jay
Sorry, what exactly is "common sense" about injecting yourself with a rushed, liability-free, mandated shot that didn't stop infection or transmission, needed endless boosters, and sometimes came with a lovely side of myocarditis and unexplained "sudden deaths?"
Yeah, real common sense.
GillislowTier
Yeah… Japan no.
This should be remembered and criticized as Japan being extremely slow and unwilling to move with any sense of urgency in a dangerous situation. A ship full of old vulnerable people and their idea was to lock them in a small space together? With the only measure being “open the window, it’s good for when people are sick”
This was preventable from minute 1. And then their solution at the end was to just let them go home on public transport after some died. Absolute failure and the first thing I point to when people say Japan handled the pandemic well. They absolutely didn’t.
Geeter Mckluskie
Japan didn't panic by imposing mandates and lockdowns, crippling its economy while fascistically freezing bank accounts of its citizens like Canada did. Nor did they make people carry "vaccinated" id cards like the Nazis painting the Star of David on the homes and businesses of the "Jüdin". They didn't create "snitch" lines for people to turn against each other in a moral panic.
Their slow response was measured and effective.
owzer
Those passengers should sue for unlawful imprisonment.
Raw Beer
In other words, they did not over react...
Aoi Azuuri
This country has learned nothing from lesson of past 5 years when increasing deaths year by year unlike other countries.
Even independent investigation about responding Covid19 hasn't done, and society only distract eyes from many deaths, pretend to be nothing.
Japantime
This ship started the pandemic in Japan. I remember this news. Japan had very few cases until this ship came back from overseas with the virus.
sakurasuki
@Japantime
It was Nara, a bus driver being confirmed the first covid patient in Japan. The problem how many people in Nara or other area he's been contacted to? Nobody know.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200401/p2g/00m/0fe/034000c
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0145561320980186
.
About that ship, Japanese news just keep airing that ship over and over again, as if that ship is the main cause for covid existence in Japan. Remember there's no lockdown in Japan also give Go To Travel discount during covid, which proven helping spread out Covid in Japan.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/07/22/business/economy-business/go-to-travel-campaign-domestic-tourism-coronavirus/
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Asia-Insight/Japan-s-Go-To-Travel-plan-spurs-fears-of-man-made-COVID-disaster
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/4/e049069
Bruce Pennyworth
So 0.35% died and the world death toll was 0.09%, granted that the majority of people who died were probably old, a investigation is not warranted
travelbangaijin
Japan left them on that ship - imagine if a real bio-outbreak or bio-warfare happen in Japan, how Nippon will respond
sakurasuki
It's also mark Japan's slow response during time of Covid crisis