People return to work under extended emergency after Golden Week

The picture doesn’t suggest that teleworking has been adopted much does it?

"They cannot take part in extracurricular activities (at school) and are building up stress staying at home. I am concerned about their physical and mental health if this continues for long," he said.

This was a wonderful opportunity to spend “quality” time with his children. Seems as if he wasn’t improving their physical or mental health during this time.

Brace yourselves for the second wave!

Look at all that "social distancing", and no doubt on the road towards a train packed tighter than a case of a cans of sardines. The second wave, piled on to the still unfolding first, is not going to be pretty in Japan, especially as they cry about lack of supplies and hospital beds, going 10 days without testing, and more. And THAT's when they have had MONTHS to prepare.

Well, some GW that was. Just continued working through GW and every weekend as if it were a normal working day, but at home. Can't tell the difference between weekday, weekends or holidays.

"They cannot take part in extracurricular activities (at school) and are building up stress staying at home. I am concerned about their physical and mental health if this continues for long," he said.

Ok you have a choice, a couple of kids that are frustrated for a couple of weeks, or send them back to school and get out with there friends, catch this virus and possibly die from it, I am afraid you have to think long term rather than short term.

I hardly ever see families outside. These people are notorious for saying they love nature and are one with nature unless it is too cold, too hot, too windy, too sunny, air too stagnant, too rainy, not enough rain, too snowy...and if the malls are all shut down, what is the sense of going outside?

Some of my friends tell me their neighbors on all sides have gotten much louder and that working from home has been difficult to concentrate.

The photo above looks like it was shot with a long l no thus making it appear much more crowded.

Good luck salary workers!

Major stations in Tokyo and its vicinity remained quiet Thursday with a limited number of people commuting on the first workday after the long Golden Week holiday under the extended state of emergency.

Looking at the picture and reading this are like trying to compare apples and oranges!

Your competition for today is to spot the one person in that picture not wearing a mask. No prizes though.

Insane, isn’t it? It’s like a large wave of soldiers marching over a field of machine gun fire and explosions. The generals will change their mind later after surveying the damage.

@ Harry, your wrong my friend! there is one lady on the left of the picture just behind a man, she does NOT have a mask! where's my prize??

good things are going back to normal, and people are seeing through all the rubbish and getting on with their lives. but you cant tell the second-wave fear mongers though

Most people on here don't want to acknowledge that Japan is doing something right by keeping the death rate down so low while still running an economy the best they can.

I can't think of a better or safer country to be living in right now. So much freedom with necessary precautions in place.

After the "first wave" didn't pan out for the doomsdayers, they are now shouting about the imminent "second wave" that will cripple Japan. Is this based on the weekly numbers going down? Is this based on social distancing after 3 months of free-for-all? Or is this based on your "wish" so you can be vindicated?

The Japanese are very cautious in social situations and besides some uncontrollable clusters it looks to be a very stable situation at this point. The increase in depression, suicide, and domestic violence is a "wave" you pessimists should follow closely.

@ Harry, your wrong my friend! 

Read my comment again, slowly.

Japan will never beat this virus if that photo represents their idea of social distancing.

My layman's guess is that Japan may have closed its borders after infection with the less lethal coronavirus, and the mutated more lethal version is what is causing carnage in Europe and the US but hasn't reached Japan yet.

Much remains to be explored, but a study suggests that two different strains have come to Japan in different time from different places (first from neighboring China and then from Europe). The current one may be a deadlier European.

COVID-19 spread in Japan since March closer to European strain

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13336912

If such being the case, another question arises, why both cases and death tolls differ so profoundly despite the same virus type. Japan has been an outlier for months by about one hundredth (which I don't see any technical errors or manipulations).

Your "reward" is being alive to enjoy your life in the future.

Japan will never beat this virus if that photo represents their idea of social distancing.

How could one possibly be so sure if the picture above is a current and representative scene? With technical adjustment (e.g. in camera angle) such "looking crowded" photo can be taken.

noriahojanen - How could one possibly be so sure if the picture above is a current and representative scene? 

Oh, gees! I dunno! Perhaps the caption under the photo?

People commute to work during the morning rush hour in Tokyo on Thursday. 

Your competition for today is to spot the one person in that picture not wearing a mask. No prizes though.

She is (oops) probably the one person in the crowd that actually HAD the virus! Or she's not Japanese!

They cannot take part in extracurricular activities (at school)

Thank god. Imagine kids having time to actually have fun rather than needing to go to school 7 days a week at 6am to do some kind of dumb 'extracurricular activities'. The horror!

Doesn't seem that people in the photo are wearing Abe's masks. Just saying.

The most infectious place in Japan and everybody is crowded together....again!

Today's new cases

Tokyo: 23

Osaka: 9 (out of 462 tested; 1 counted as "re-infected")

Aichi: 0

With possible underreporting or time lags taken into account, the overall trend has continued to stay in decline. Many have recovered, which is yet not widely noticed or reported. Above all, as I've stressed, active numbers, not accumulative ones, are very crucial info to comprehend the current status.

Most of those people comments are striking how selfishly honest they are, for better or worse.

"There was no choice but to extend" the state of emergency, Osamu Tomura, a 58-year-old bank employee, said, adding that he wants the government to set steps toward lifting the measures.

"I want (the government) to set thorough measures so that efforts by people complying (with the government request) are rewarded," he said.

You want a pat on the back for not being a douche?

@suzurin I think you missed his point.

The reward would be to be able to go back to a normal life quickly. So he is basically asking the government to finally do what they were supposed to do since the beginning: test, trace and isolate and contain.

Otherwise, as him, I feel like all our efforts staying home will be for nothing, if as soon as the SOE is lifted the coronavirus continues to spread.

My train this evening had every seat full. Seems people just went back to work and no one bothered to tell the government.

N.M

I feel like all our efforts staying home will be for nothing, if as soon as the SOE is lifted the coronavirus continues to spread.

It had already spread before the SOE and is still spreading and so far as the number if test are kept low there is nothing to worry as psychologically the returned results will be low boosting national pride.

@marcelito

I'm fully aware of logistical issues, time lags and other factors affecting the daily reporting. That's not where I pay my special attention. Let's see a general pattern and active cases, don't swing between hope and despair over daily numbers.

The picture doesn’t suggest that teleworking has been adopted much does it? 

No and it won’t, you have to understand one thing, Japan is controlled by an aging baby boomer population that believes old and traditional ways are far better than what the modern generation has, they’re resistent to it and changing it is like pushing a 2 ton boulder up the hill. I’m sure the next generation of Japanese leaders will jump on the high tech train. Do you still have people in rule areas that don’t have computers or don’t use computers or don’t even think they need to use computers.

This was a wonderful opportunity to spend “quality” time with his children. Seems as if he wasn’t improving their physical or mental health during this time.

I agree, but don’t beat yourself up on wondering why. It’s boils down to culture really ans tradition. For the Japanese not having the children in school is a very, very stressful thing, besides that most parents really don’t know what to do, because the routine is kids go to school, many go to Juku until late, come home, eat dinner, study, chat a bit with their friends and then go to bed to repeat the cycle. Fathers usually come in late and by the time they do, kids are often studying or in Juku. So you’re not gonna see too many traditional families a lot of interaction between the parents and the kids in a time like this, because simply they don’t know and I’m not used to it, I’m not saying all but pretty much the majority.

So I think even though the leaders know the seriousness of this virus, it seems they willing to take the chance so that the kids can go back to school, it just won’t work keeping them locked out like this, because you already hear stories about parents going crazy and kids being depressed because they can’t see their friends. Again, different culture, different thinking.

Economies have to reopen.

Life has to move forward or we will have nothing to come back to.

If you are scared, stay home.

Many people are saying that Japanese people aren’t following the state of emergency. But then one comment mentions that every seat on my train was taken. Must be many foreigners commuting to work on crowded trains too.