Restaurants, hotels in Osaka, Hyogo and Miyagi prefectures disappointed at stricter COVID-19 steps

Last year's measures also covered the Golden Week. They say they are losing the most profitable time of the year for their businesses again. I support their right to complain and/or advocate to their government to ameliorate or address the second-order effects. Regardless of whether they are motivated by self-interest or some people think they have a selfish attitude, in a democracy we must have debate and a discussion with the governed over the government's policies.

I live in Auckland, New Zealand. We have had 1 level 4 & 3 level 3 lockdowns.

Auckland City has a population of 1.5 million, about the same as Sendai. We look at it like this.

""The Big Picture"" The Ultimate Result. The Team of 5 Million.

So, as difficult as it is, tough measures are essential for recovery.

Some Prefectures will pay a bigger price than others. Cast your mind back 10 years.

The Mega Quake & Tsunami. Did unaffected areas sit back and say, Not Our Problem. NO.

Same thing now applies.

Be Kind, Be Helpful & Support your Neighbours in this time of difficulty.

Please try to understand that to be healthy, one can earn money.

@commanteer

How is that obvious ?

Personally, I found it obvious they did it (you know all the experts poping up around government since the start of the pandemic). Why would they not publish it, I do not think it is because they like to kept thing secret, just they did not consider appropriate to publish it as part of the content was susceptible to not be user friendly, like why you can not so easily find information about how much your life is worth for the government even for triage criteria thought we are in the middle of a pandemic, they did not come out.

Lot of government are pretty clear about the benefit of the mass-quarantine &co : protecting medical system.

If you have anything against martial law, feel free to vote for politician wanting to erase it. Have some countries used martial law in order to get their mass-quarantine ?Yes. Do all did ? No.

For human right : do not forget article 29.

Middle class, poor, small business were being crushed long before covid-19. The absence of mass-quarantine &co will not less crushed them. Who has the most to loose with the collapse of the medical system ? The rich which can easily pick up the remaining doctor and nurse to work for them ? The big corporation which will not have to pay it for their worker ?

I did not know government were actively encouraging people to go to Amazon. If Amazon is enriching itself it is because people use it instead of other website, physical store with pick up service, ... and that is not new : how many business already bankrupted thank to online shopping, streaming service, ...

Spent a lovely afternoon in Osaka with my partner in the Namba area.

Good food and shopping and plenty of people about enjoying themselves.

it seems as busy as usual which Is good news for us that like to support our local businesses.

@Flute Obviously, they do not. Unless they did it and kept the results secret, though that seems unlikely, even with today's secretive and unaccountable governments.

So far as the rest of what you listed, much of that is happening with or without the lockdowns (especially distrust in government).

Like I said, no case with potential benefits vs potential costs has been presented to the public. And this is the least a government can do before instituting what is essentially martial law. Just quick government action and denial of basic human rights, with little justification. The result of which is crushing the middle class, the poor and small business owners while massively rewarding mega-corporations like Amazon and power-hungry politicians.

@commanteer

They would also need to calculate how many lives will be lost by the lock-down measures, as well as examine the other harmful effects of essentially restricting normal human behavior and the economy. This is more difficult to quantify, but must be done.

Who said they did not ?

You seems to focus your reasoning on the consequence real/potential or supposed of lockdown as opposed to the consequence of the absence of mass quarantine&co which you seems to infer are easier to quantify.

Did you consider the potential consequence of the absence of mass quarantine&co ?

medical system overwhelmed

collapse of the medical system

diminution of available and potential medical workers

people avoiding hospital as felt unsafe

increase of avoidable death occurring due to lack of treatment

people isolating themselves and their family

children taken out of school

bankruptcy of several business depending of customers becoming scarce

increase of number of people unable due to health issue for an amount of time undetermined

increase of the number of people needing long term treatment

survivor syndrome

increase of people in precarious situation due to death/loss of job of parent/partner

building up of distrust in the government and its institution

cut of workers' right / benefit

...

Several of the effects of the mass quarantine&co will have happened no matter what, thought perhaps at the same range or the same path. Mass quarantine&co prevented others. Efficient measures (already in place or created) by some government reduced effects of the pandemic and the mass quarantine&co.

"People were just beginning to feel optimistic"

yes and utterly careless. Hence the return to lip-service strictness.

Of course there needs to be measures in place! I went out today and you would have no clue there is even a hint of COVID here is Osaka. Busniess as usual!

I can predict the outcome of the "strong measures"

1) Strong measures officially announced and implemented

2) Mainstream media starts showing reduced crowds at and around city center or

train stations

3) PCR testing is gradually reduced and the cases fall as a result

4) Declare victory and attribute the success to the "Strong Measures"

and mainstream media reminds us how great we are and how we should be proud for beating the

virus just by wearing mask, hand washing, gaggle and super cleanliness without any lockdown

like other countries that despite lockdowns cases are still very high.

Yeah, just shut up and do as gov't and bureaucrats tell you to. What do have to do, support yourself and your family or something? Stop being so selfish.

"I thought this would happen at some point," said 44-year-old Takashi Yamaguchi, who works at a Thai restaurant in Osaka. "Pandemic measures remain inconsistent in stores, and there are still many people who don't wear masks when they go outside."

Wear them outside? Get out of here!

Takashi probably wears them to bed too...

In democratic society this abuse of human rights would lead to protests/riots.

Echo that monty have to kearn to live with this virus

enough of this nonsense.

get back to opening as per normal. if you dont want to get infected, stay inside.

Provide a scientific source that prove that the situation with the pandemic would not worsen at all without the full set of social distancing measures, else you are just pretending this would be so without any basis.

First, the onus is on the government to provide a scientific justification for the lock-downs, to show that they actually save any lives at all. And that's just the start. They would also need to calculate how many lives will be lost by the lock-down measures, as well as examine the other harmful effects of essentially restricting normal human behavior and the economy. This is more difficult to quantify, but must be done.

Only then, when you can present a case that the lockdown will save more lives than it takes, and that it is morally justifiable, can you claim that lockdowns are a good idea.

Regarding the morality of it, it is quite obvious that, even if the lockdowns save lives, they loss of life due to loss of economic activity will fall primarily on people wit less money and resources - shifting the weight of the fatalities from the wealthy to the poor and struggling middle classes. Or maybe that's the idea?

"People were just beginning to feel optimistic" following the cherry blossom season and the start of the Olympic torch relay, he said, adding they would "definitely be less motivated" to travel now.

People like him are the perfect example of the total irresponsibility of this country.

A lot of people like him self convinced that just forgetting the virus and go out watching cherry blossom can save him from the pandemy.

But this is the LDP fault as well that gave the indoctrination to it’s people that Covid is a foreign disease and that Japanese are genetically less prone to contract the infection.

@therougou

Yes, I should have said "infection rates" in regard to mask wearing with less deaths being attributed (perhaps) to lower comorbidities among the infected. Cheers.

This shows total negligence of goverment. Japan is among the only few countries which had order vaccines which would be enough for inoculating the population thrice. Japan had chance if it had started inoculation from the 1st day when vaccine was approved it would have inoculated around 60% of its population till now because japan had advantage over other countries because of low corona cases as a result japan would have chance to open economy make olympic success and boast the world by helping but now it is lagging behind many underdevelope nations in vaccination. This shows the bad governance. Japan missed the golden chance. And i feel sorry for that, but still it has chance.

Or perhaps, that would be because you have no idea what the numbers are.

No, I just demonstrated that you cannot know the distribution of a series of values from the average, which was completely the point.

That means only about 6% of covid deaths had no known comorbidities. Not so huge.

Read again my comment, what example did I put? What kind of person would say that 150,000 deaths are "not so huge"? This is an extremely high number of people that did not have any kind of problem, and died from something that you said never would kill them.

On top of that you still need to include the people that had complications and did not recover for weeks or months and the people that have to live now with permanent problems because of the infection. Survivors are not the same as being healthy people.

The news said Osaka is 50% a variant form of Covid, Hyogo is 70%.

It also said that the total yesterday is Osaka's fourth highest, but there is no "state of emergency", just some "man-en boushi". This expression seems to have been pulled from somewhere and is already being widely abbreviated to the almost fun-sounding "mambo", not least because the "man" is a difficult kanji and is frequently written in hiragana. In previous disasters, there have been cases where people did not flee from floodwater because they didn't think an "advisory" or whatever the expression was used signified something serious. It was hanami in Kansai last week, so the numbers are likely to rise further. Daytime hanami is outdoors but it is common for people who go at night to flee into izakayas because spring evenings can be chilly, especially when you are dressing for 20C plus daytime temps.

More prevalent mask usage in Asia may have had a part in the lower case rates but I would say lower comorbidities probably had (and continues to have) more of an impact.

That would play a part in the death rate but not sure how it impacts the number of infections. The fact is will still haven't seen an exponential increase in infections after more than a year has passed.

Keep the pachinko parlors, karaoke bars and any other establishment that looks like a closet closed until the majority of the population is vaccinated. Everything else...fully open with safety protocols! Job done.

The problem is, the majority of establishments in Japan look like a closet. And many of them are quiet eateries during the day but at night can get filled with mask-less people drinking and talking in close proximity. Hence the measures. Yes not as effective as a full lockdown but does do something while giving these places a chance to stay afloat.

That would be because you don't understand how averages work. They are useless to prove the frequency of the values that are used to calculate it. What if 3 people with 10 comorbidities and 7 with no other problem were averaged? it would give you the same average.

Or perhaps, that would be because you have no idea what the numbers are.

At the time, 94% of covid deaths were with comorbidities according to the CDC.

That means only about 6% of covid deaths had no known comorbidities. Not so huge.

@therougou

More prevalent mask usage in Asia may have had a part in the lower case rates but I would say lower comorbidities probably had (and continues to have) more of an impact.

Keep the pachinko parlors, karaoke bars and any other establishment that looks like a closet closed until the majority of the population is vaccinated. Everything else...fully open with safety protocols! Job done.

Still waiting on the government to provide a scientific basis for this: https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/Restaurant-chain-sues-Tokyo-government-over-COVID-hour-curbs/

You can't just keep whacking something without checking it's actually the best thing to do

If you think something will help and don't have the time to do a scientific study or power to implement stronger measures, then that is fine by me. Westerners were saying the same thing about masks, that there was no proof they do anything, and as a result missed a big chance to curb the spread of COVID while they waited for their scientific proof.. Meanwhile countries in Asia, despite being more densely populated in most cases, never had such a huge number of cases.

I don't know the latest US numbers, but not that long ago it was reported that covid deaths had on average almost 3 comorbidities. So I don't think the number of healthy people dying from covid is that huge.

That would be because you don't understand how averages work. They are useless to prove the frequency of the values that are used to calculate it. What if 3 people with 10 comorbidities and 7 with no other problem were averaged? it would give you the same average.

Lets say 5% of the deaths have no other health problem, for 2.83 mil deaths that still means 150,000 people without any comorbidity died from the disease, and this is including people that "suffer" from conditions that would have let them live for decades without problem with easy control.

If you are vulnerable or scared, stay home. But if you're healthy, go out and have fun. If you won't go out because of covid, then you should never ever go out again; there will always be something...

That is where you are wrong, you don't need to be scared nor vulnerable to stay home, you just need to be responsible and human, also intelligent enough to understand that death is not the only negative consequence of being infected and once hospitals no longer accept patients your risk of death becomes much higher since you could not become just "hospitalized" like now.

Deaths from government induced poverty, and from fear of going to hospitals for cancer/heart screening, from depression arising from isolation, and the more permanent emotional damaging being done to kids... those are unnecessary deaths.

One kind of problem do not prove that another problem is not existent, it is very different to say that measures are being left without necessary support than saying they are unjustified. Provide a scientific source that prove that the situation with the pandemic would not worsen at all without the full set of social distancing measures, else you are just pretending this would be so without any basis.

If the govt. is following this closing earlier is better logic, then they should close all white-collar businesses at 4 or 5 o'clock and let the restaurants/bars make their money from these early off work customers too.

It's masks, social distancing, keeping establishments uncrowded and aired out is what makes a difference. Not 8 or 9 o'clock.

Imagine if Japan had done a 100% lockdown of every business,

North Korea has been very successful in fighting Covid-19, simply by shooting anyone who tested positive....

Except that then people will not get complications and unnecessary deaths will be prevented. 

For someone who likes to speak of science, you make a habit of ignoring obvious factors. Deaths from government induced poverty, and from fear of going to hospitals for cancer/heart screening, from depression arising from isolation, and the more permanent emotional damaging being done to kids... those are unnecessary deaths.

Always concerned about reducing deaths from Covid-19, no matter how many people the policies kill otherwise.

Time to stop all this mask wearing and social distancing.

If you like, but please stay away from the rest of us, thanks.

 The corona kills the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions...kind of like the flu and a variety of other ailments that we would never dream of using as an excuse to shut down society.

And also young people, and healthy people, in huge numbers.

I don't know the latest US numbers, but not that long ago it was reported that covid deaths had on average almost 3 comorbidities. So I don't think the number of healthy people dying from covid is that huge.

In Japan, nobody below 20 died from covid, only 3 deaths in their 20's, 18 in their 30's... and probably none of these deaths were from healthy people.

If you are vulnerable or scared, stay home. But if you're healthy, go out and have fun. If you won't go out because of covid, then you should never ever go out again; there will always be something...

Imagine if Japan had done a 100% lockdown of every business, except for grocery store, hospitals and drug stores, for one month last spring and then once again in fall. Every business would've taken a hit, of course, but we would've gotten the virus cases down to almost zero. Businesses would've been able to carry on w/o losing so much money every month for over a year.

 The corona kills the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions...kind of like the flu and a variety of other ailments that we would never dream of using as an excuse to shut down society.

And also young people, and healthy people, in huge numbers. Specially once hospitals can no longer accept any patient, so everybody that only counts as "hospitalized" now would become "death".

For some reason the experts opinion about public health matters seem much more ethical and rational than someone that is in denial of the problem.

Testing, testing, testing. If you tested the whole population, you would find that most people have already been infected in one way or another and now have a natural immunity. Just because you test a lot does not mean that everyone dies.

Any evidence to support this or is it just wild imaginations? you do understand that if most people were already immune the spreading would be interrupted and we would see an important reduction of the number of cases even if we were doing nothing, right?

I was watching a past video of the so called world expert Doctor Fauci stating that masks do not do anything and said that the only people who should wear masks are people who are sick.

So if you don't like what the science proves nowadays your solution is going to the past, where we knew less about something and listen to wrong advice? How about going a few centuries back then and cure COVID with trepanations and blood letting?

 - working from home for a year, limiting travel, not seeing my boyfriend who lives in a different part of Japan

People can travel whereever they like. Not seeing your boyfriend is a personal choice.

I am confused why People continue to accept these self sacrifics.For what, so corona wil disappear next month,w

Are you elderly, frail, obese?

If not there is no reason you shouldnt travel.

@RealCDN

"Einstein said something alomg the lines of it being jnsanity to do something the same way and expect different results."

If everyone was doing what they're supposed to be doing (hand washing, distancing, proper masks), I would say this has some merit. But we have a great many people who are convinced this is a hoax/conspiracy/isn't as bad as the media claims. Then add in all the people who think wearing a mask infringes on their freedom or makes them a sheep...

Very well put Vic M

Yeah well, of course they're disappointed. I'm more disappointed that my own sacrifices - working from home for a year, limiting travel, not seeing my boyfriend who lives in a different part of Japan - aren't being matched by a big part of the population, so that we have this situation with the virus still going on, with NO VACCINE IN SIGHT for most of us for months. My 29-year-old cousin in the US is getting hers, and she has no pre-existing conditions. If the government had taken this more seriously earlier, maybe more of the population would have too, and we'd have fewer cases. And the torch relay wouldn't be having sections cancelled due to viral infections rising.

Testing, testing, testing. If you tested the whole population, you would find that most people have already been infected in one way or another and now have a natural immunity. Just because you test a lot does not mean that everyone dies.

Time to stop all this mask wearing and social distancing. The damage to the economy and people's lives is far worse then this virus flu. As for shutting down businesses from 9pm to 8pm is nonsense. I was watching a past video of the so called world expert Doctor Fauci stating that masks do not do anything and said that the only people who should wear masks are people who are sick.

Look at all the people wearing their masks outside and doing physical sports with them on. Everyone living in fear. How long are you going to hide your faces ? Humans have lived for thousands of years withot having to hide behind a mask. By the way, Covid survival rate is more than 97 percent as latest reports show.

Warning- don't hang out under the cherry blossom trees with your friends because you will catch Covid.

The problem. We cannot let the restaurants and bars go broke and we can't let people go on eating and drinking out as if the viral plague does not exist.

The easiest solution would be to subsidize everyone--if money were no object. Perhaps money is "no object" if kept in reasonable bounds. At least, the restaurants could be kept afloat and staff kept off the street. Longterm loans perhaps?

Japan is rich enough to host the Olympics. It should be rich enough to support restaurants and bars.

Close everything for two weeks, knock the virus on the head and life can return to normal.

If it would be that easy, the whole world would be already rid off the virus and live a normal life.

I recommend that you look around you and see the situation after more than one year already all over the world.

Close for two weeks and life can return to normal...thanks for that good laugh this morning!

We are born and we die. It is how you live in between that two events that matter. If you wish to live risk free then you will be disappointed but many of us are tired of having to live according to your fear. Wear your mask, do you social distancing if it makes you feel safer or more virtuous but the show must go one. The corona kills the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions...kind of like the flu and a variety of other ailments that we would never dream of using as an excuse to shut down society. Those posters criticizing bars and restaurant owner for wanting to earn a living are simply callous.

Even after the whole population is vaccined the Virus will be around and people will get infected and will infect others.

Except that then people will not get complications and unnecessary deaths will be prevented. At the point where COVID no longer represents a risk for public health (at least no more than other respiratory infectious diseases) then there will be no need for extra measures to prevent infection.

The world have to live with the virus.

Everybody should do the best personal prevention and live your life.

Obviously (by the rising on the number of cases) people are not doing it, so the social distancing measures are not the cause of the problem, they are a consequence. Unless you have some efficient way to make people do their "best personal prevention" you can only accept the second best, which is what we have. There is no point in saying we should abandon an imperfect solution that only have partial success if you don't have a better solution to replace it.

Stop destroying businesses, jobs and life existences.

The ones that are doing it are the people that are not taking care and thus causing more cases every day, If they are not doing it for their own health I don't think you telling them to stop is going to have any effect either.

 hoping the measures will not be prolonged.

They just don’t seem to get it. The more they stay open the more it will be prolonged. Close everything for two weeks, knock the virus on the head and life can return to normal.

Lockdowns (or shutdowns or whatever term will be used next) are not an effective solution - look around the world at such repeated nonsense and the results thus far.

The people of New Zealand and Australia read the above quote with confusion...

why isn't anyone complaining about such racist terms as U.K. variant or South Africa variant or Brazil variant?

Are people from the UK or South Africa, or people who may be mistaken as members of those countries, facing racist actions as a result of the usage of these terms?

Lockdowns (or shutdowns or whatever term will be used next) are not an effective solution - look around the world at such repeated nonsense and the results thus far.

Einstein said something alomg the lines of it being jnsanity to do something the same way and expect different results.

And why isn't anyone complaining about such racist terms as U.K. variant or South Africa variant or Brazil variant?

To paraphrase one of the interviewees, "people were feeling more optimistic and willing to travel more." Therein lies the problem. Unfortunately no matter what measures these establishments take, if the customers don't practice the basic protocols, it's all for naught.

How many more years will this Nonsens go on?

Until all restaurants, bars and izakayas are bancrupt?

Until all staff lost their jobs?

When will the world understand that the virus will never ever dissapear.

Even after the whole population is vaccined the Virus will be around and people will get infected and will infect others.

Lifting SOE, put it back again, lift mesasures, put the measures again, ...makes zero sense.

The world have to live with the virus.

Everybody should do the best personal prevention and live your life.

Same like we are doing with all other diseases.

Millions are dying every year from Influenza, Heart Attacks...and other diseases.

But we are living with those diseases.

But we are doing our personal preventions. Eat well, doing sports, ...whatever...

And that is the same thing with Covid.

Do your prevention and live with it.

Stop destroying businesses, jobs and life existences.

People that can only think about themselves are the ones prolonging the need of strong measures, some stores are very serious with their countermeasures while others simply put a sticker without doing anything else.

This has been like a 18-Wheeler doing a break check over and over going down a endless mountain highway road! When will the breaks be fully applied?

"Restaurants, hotels in Osaka, Hyogo and Miyagi prefectures disappointed at stricter COVID-19 steps"

Right. Money over what's best for the citizens me thinks!