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Gov't rethinks easing crowd limits at events as infections rise

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31 Comments
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Why is the economy minister of in charge of of Japan's measures against the spread of the coronavirus? What makes him competent to deal with this pandemic and what is the minister of health doing? In the meanwhile a "subcommittee will hold a meeting in the near future to discuss..." No wonder Japan's leadership's response to the coronavirus is characterized by disarray and obvious incompetence.

31 ( +34 / -3 )

Good grief. Where are the scientists?

19 ( +23 / -4 )

You mean they actually "thought" of something previously?

"Rethinks" assumes that there was a "plan" in the first place, and I would say that Tokyo is still in the "first" wave of infections, as they have never had a day with "zero" infections since this all started.

The lack of leadership on this is unforgivable!

12 ( +16 / -4 )

The government will hold a subcommittee meeting in the near future to discuss the pros and cons of easing the crowd limits.

Ah, a subcommittee in the near future to discuss thinking about an actual committee being formed further in the future to further discuss thinking about taking an affirmative action about something that needs to be JUMPED ON NOW!!!

10 ( +12 / -2 )

"We need to think about this carefully,"

D'ya reckon?

9 ( +9 / -0 )

An incompetent bunch of amateurs is no match for a deadly virus. The lack of urgency on the part of the political leadership is mirrored by that of the general population in many countries. This state of affairs of disbelief and unpreparedness is uncannily described in disconcerting detail by Albert Camus in his 1947 novel, "The Plague", now a recommended read in the time of corona.

8 ( +14 / -6 )

Do they have to form panels for the second thoughts, too? These should have been FIRST thoughts, but nope.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

The government will hold a subcommittee meeting in the near future to discuss the pros and cons of easing the crowd limits.

And herein lies the problem. All government decisions are several weeks or months behind what is actually happening. We need speed, clarity and consistency and we have zero chance of getting any of them.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

Gives you confidence that we are in good hands doesn’t it... incoherent, flip flop policies, head scratching. The elites.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Something needs to be done. It’s clear that people cannot take it upon themselves to stay away for danger spots. That said, either the writers of these articles need retraining or the people in charge need to do less thinking, planning, considering and so on and more doing.

BTW covid19japan.com upgraded their site. A bit more detailed.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

Total lockdown for an extended period of time is the only valid policy. It hurts, but so do slow deaths, brain damage, loss of lung capacity, and who knows what else!

4 ( +17 / -13 )

Total relaxation of crowd limits from 1st August really looks like madness now. (Nice idea while it lasted, though.)

This week I have watched both soccer matches and baseball matches on TV with 5,000 spectator limits. In general the crowd obeys the 'no shouting' instructions, but some people start screaming at the top of their voices. Who can blame them? And as the wife observed, it is human nature to raise the hubbub by several octaves once the alcohol goes in.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

leighkf:

Here is the big question for the J gov't...do we do a "lockdown" again

There was never a lockdown in the first place. There was a lot of urging and requesting and asking, but people faced no penalties for not listening to this useless government. That is a big part of the problem.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Japanese economic revitalization minister what a title then again LDP is just as hypocritical.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Lamilly

Japanese government is doing what most gov around the world are doing.

Like keeping the infection rate low by performing pcr testing at an embarrassingly low rate.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

This story highlights the need for track and trace apps.

track and trace apps can only work where there is a lot of TESTING. With Tokyo's 2000 a day now increased to 4000 a day tests, they are not going to be able to do anything. That is 4000 in a city over 20,000,000. The app is no panacea and n fact particularly in Japan with next to ne testing is useless.

In act the record world wide of the success of these apps is not looking very useful anywhere. The Australian app is proving a big flop in Melbourne and that is in a city with around 30,000 tests a day and a population of 5,000,000 or so. How could the Japanese app with the low number of testing here be of any use. The app was devised for two reasons. Firstly Japan can say they have one so are doing a good job ( to help cover up their very low testing) and two whoever made the app got wonderful payoffs for making it and I imagine there would be some links to the government in that. No I don't have proof but you can sure that app cost a lot of money which might have been better spent on the health system that may need it soon, rather than a totally useless app.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

@lamilly ‘no’ they need to be earning their money. Not filling the pockets of big business

2 ( +2 / -0 )

ALWAYS too little too late. I wish I was the Prime Minister. I would shut down Japan and give everyone baby masks. That will do the trick.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

The world is changing like it or not. People's fear about the epidemic will not disappear easily and performing arts and sports events will be held without spectators or with small numbers of them and people have to enjoy them on TV. Japan's professional baseball and sumo which begins today are so. But I wonder if they can make ends meet in this way.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

@ article: The Japanese government is having second thoughts about relaxing the current restrictions on the number of spectators allowed to enter sporting and other major events, a senior government official said Saturday.

This is step worthy to mull about a bit, as eventually the businesses must move forward and people need to get back to their jobs and support their families somehow, which includes entertainment however let's look at reality is sporting entertainment a reality need? It creates jobs, i.e. ticket sales, marketing, uniforms, laundry services, security services, field maintenance etc, which in turn creates other jobs that people all need in order to make money in order to provide for their basic needs and families. So these are very interesting things our officials will be thinking about, not only the risks, but ripple effects of sporting events overall on our economy. However slightly off-topic and my apologies Mods, but more concerning to us readers is why is China allowed to be inside the EEZ and not just blasted out of there since this is invasion of Japan rights by law. This too affects our future economy despite ANY reasoning yet we are hearing nothing about this.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Why aren’t the powerful rich and probably laden with multiple health issues, not worried that they are the target of this new SARS virus? They are first in line to depart, but as Japanese live long, they can enjoy their senior years.

they should use their influence to push LDP for a good long life.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Long term effects of covid such as brain and lung damages are inevitable.

People should be more aware, wear masks, avoid crowds, etc.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/18/health/long-term-effects-young-people-covid-wellness/index.html

0 ( +11 / -11 )

This story highlights the need for track and trace apps. I know there are privacy issues, but ninety-odd percent of people are happily giving up oodles of hitherto private info to Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, etc. whether they know about it or not.

With track and trace, we could ascertain if these step-by-step attempts at opening up again are genuinely causing clusters. Without track and trace, its all just guesswork.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

There was a lot of urging and requesting and asking, but people faced no penalties for not listening to this useless government.

I find the fact that we still have freedom is a good thing. I hope it stays that way.

Unfortunately, many other countries have moved towards dictatorship...

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Here is the big question for the J gov't...do we do a "lockdown" again to decrease the infection numbers at the expense of our economy or do we carry on as we have been at the risk of our health? I'd vote to do the latter like Hawaii did.

-3 ( +8 / -11 )

All anyone has to do is look at America. Do you want to end like America?

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Simian LaneToday  07:39 am JST

Testing the waters is ok. We’re gonna see a lot of this back and forth, and it’s not necessarily bad leadership, it’s caution with a desire to return to some normalcy.

Couldnt agree more.

団体的!

-8 ( +2 / -10 )

Why the fuss, the death rate is still very low.

A lockdown would only extend the crisis while further damaging the economy. Makes no sense to wait for a vaccine that might never arrive, and if it does eventually arrive might cause more damage (including brain damage) than the disease.

-15 ( +8 / -23 )

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