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Japan retracts controversial policy over alcohol-serving restaurants

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He urged Nishimura to "resign immediately before drawing anger from the public."

Too late for that!

The public is already angry...including me!

30 ( +33 / -3 )

Nishimura told him he will retract the policy as it had failed to secure the understanding of the public, Kato said.

the public understand it’s these disenfranchised idiots that don’t lack understanding. He doesn’t have the mental skills to wait on a table let alone be in government. We understand all right.

20 ( +21 / -1 )

My God! No alcohol! Closing restaurants at 7:00pm! Now that is what I call a serious lockdown. Or, maybe a joke? Japan has never taken Covid 19 seriously except by using it to harass Gaijins.

21 ( +26 / -5 )

Can someone please explain why Japanese use the phrase "in principal" in just about every written regulation?

20 ( +21 / -1 )

The ‘Circus’ is in town, so it’s time to give ‘Bread’ bach to the people. - “Hail ! Hail, Caesar!”

8 ( +8 / -0 )

@Joseph: Yep - all of these measures are 'in principal' as none of them are legally enforceable. To make any of these measures law, the constitution would have to be changed. All about the Government NOT being able to legally tale away social freedoms.

15 ( +16 / -1 )

@Joseph

Wiggle room. They can hold anyone they don't like accountable, while allowing others to slide if they wish.

15 ( +15 / -0 )

Yep - all of these measures are 'in principal' as none of them are legally enforceable. To make any of these measures law, the constitution would have to be changed. All about the Government NOT being able to legally tale away social freedoms.

Exactly and that’s what many people here don’t understand.

Concerning the Japanese government, there are many things I can complain about. But this is not one of them. My hat is off to them in this regard.

Having a constitution is meaningless if the government can just go in and change it on a whim… regardless of the reason. Regards!!

I have lost all respect for my own country (Canada) for this very reason. I’ve been here for 20+ years and had thought that I might return to Canada in the future to retire or something. Not anymore.

I’ll be staying put here in Japan, thank you.

-2 ( +9 / -11 )

The public is already angry...including me!

add me to that list!

15 ( +16 / -1 )

Ya, he should resign.

13 ( +14 / -1 )

aside from that gaff, why is that restaurants can't serve but any store can still sell? that makes zero sense

2 ( +7 / -5 )

In prefectures where a quasi-state of emergency will be extended to Aug. 22, such as Chiba, Saitama, Kanagawa and Osaka, restaurants are asked not to serve alcohol in principle. But they can until 7 p.m. depending on the respective governors' decisions.

Those quasi state emergency does not apply to a whole prefecture. In Chiba, it concerns 12 cities. For the other ones, restaurants can stay open until 9 or 10 pm, as there is still a demand from the prefecture and alcohol has never been banned

0 ( +2 / -2 )

The government has somehow made those who want stronger measures angry and those that want no measures angry.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Nishimura told him he will retract the policy as it had failed to secure the understanding of the public, Kato said.

So he canceled the policy, not because it was immoral, but because people did not understand what it was. A simple "I was wrong" would have sufficed.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

The country is run by madmen. I’ve never seen so inept a government as Suga’s. He’s so incompetent that he makes Abe look competent.

14 ( +15 / -1 )

Banning alcohol, why not ban Olympics instead? Have a thought for the healthcare people, Japan.

16 ( +17 / -1 )

Considering the percentage it would make more sense to put pressure on bigger workplaces, commuting, department stores, shopping centers and all such places where much more people gather. But a little restaurant or izakaya with 10 customers or so is an easy target without resisting, right? That has proven not to have brought the numbers significantly down, because especially those have quite good hygiene and distance measures installed.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Absolute farce!!

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Here's an idea. If the government is well and truly concerned about fairness, and that alcohol is the demon that keeps Covid-19 going, stop ALL production and sales of alcohol immediately, from the age-old sake shops in Fushimi, Kyoto, that produce a product the government is proud of, to Abe's hometown Dasai, to conveniences stores peddling happoshu. Talk to finances that work with Asahi, Kirin, and Sapporo, and ask if they are still going to make it.

No? Why not?

Or better yet, give the places you want to close down financial aid NOW so that they can. A friend of mine who runs an izakaya has had to shut down because he is STILL waiting for the promised assistance from April 2020 in the initial SOE.

So, ban it all. Or, change the laws so that you can force places to close and people to stay home, etc. If not, stop using third-parties to pressure them, spy on them, and turn this into the new China. And we know darned well that over the weekend Nishimura or another key politician in this is going to get caught at a drinking party after hours.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

Earlier Friday, Nishimura told reporters that the government would try to "fix the unfairness" felt between establishments that are earnestly obeying the government's request not to serve alcohol and those that are not.

Do these brainless morons know the meaning of fairness?

Enough with these brainless decisions.

How about extending support to non-eateries that have been impacted by the

virus as well. It is not only eateries that have been impacted. The eateries are lucky they

open and still get to receive 40,000yen. I would be happy to receive half of that

but get zero though I am impacted more than eateries.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

The government said Friday it will retract its plan to ask financial institutions to ensure restaurants follow the ban on serving alcohol during the latest state of emergency, only a day after it put forward the initiative as a way to strengthen its anti-coronavirus response.

The CCP and Kim have company.

Amazing that even with the wilkipedia of gaffes, disregard of the populace, corruption, waste of public funds these fools still get voted. When will the spell that has been cast on the populace be removed ?

]

3 ( +3 / -0 )

How does the government manage to find so many morons to employ?

Do they purposely hire unintelligent people?

Is there a store where we can buy useless people to work in businesses?

I mean, I know there's a Jerk Store. But is there an Incompetent Store as well?

Get rid of every one of them already.

Replace them with bags of potato chips.

You'll get better results.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Nishimura told him he will retract the policy as it had failed to secure the understanding of the public, Kato said.

Gosh!

I never knew that Japan worked like this…

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If this idiotic measure was actually enacted, how were the financial institutions supposed to enforce it? Have their sales people call on the restaurants and check if alcohol is being served? And how would that benefit the bank and their shareholders? This government thinks they can use the private sector to do their bidding (although I must say that the private sector here is so used to this that they probably wouldn’t see anything wrong with the picture).

1 ( +1 / -0 )

In the U.S. Army, we would refer to this entire fiasco as a soup sandwich. Governments sure know how to serve the people soup sandwiches.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

More and more this whole soap opera is becoming a crime sit-com: in an neverending effort to hide the first crime of half-@ssed measures and denying broad testing, the government is shooting false flags just to show off, pretending that they are doing something, but of course it cannot work, because nobody knows how many with Covid virus in their bodies are running around and thus it's impossible to say were the most infections are happening.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Whatever the policy is, who do I contact to report Japanese restaurant owners and customers who are violating that policy?

https://japantoday.com/category/national/japan-to-ask-tax-free-stores-to-report-visitors-breaking-quarantine

0 ( +0 / -0 )

None of u can get the job done ???.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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