Osaka, Fukuoka to request business suspensions

If the JP government doesn't want to handout cash to businesses to help support them then why not work with the building owners to offer reduced or free rent to support them and then get their property tax discounted. For years owning a building has been a way for the elite to pay less tax as they can write them off for years so they can easily afford this.

FYI Singapore is using this system for bars and restaurants.

This month millions of people in Japan are facing a severe wage cut which means that severe hardship will result ....

Sadly, after a few months of no work and income; rents and bills won't be paid, small companies will just go bankrupt or cease trading, and both small business owners and famiies will be in real distress. Would expect a rise in suicides, as they feel that they have no future.

Hadn't schools already closed?

Orry. Unless I'm getting paid NOT to work, then I'm working.

One of the fourfold increase in domestic violence is contrIbuted to financial burdens caused by the effects of the virus. Children are even asks to dob in their parents.

abes stingy spending of our tax money is indirectly a major cause of this violence.

I am sorry for people who have loans, OUCH!!!

Funny how people will smoke, drink, take dugs, eat fatty and salty junk food, engage in unsafe sex and do all manner of things that will almost certainly shorten their lives. They just ignore doctor's advice because they want to.

However, when the doctors tell these people to turn their lives upside down and to stop working, go into debt, shut off all contact with friends and neighbors and stay indoors indefinitely and live in a police state to keep themselves safe from a disease that has very little chance of ever shortening their lives, they obey. Bizarre how easy people are to manipulate with a little social proof.

The distance of a country top leader and province governors is similar to worldly now. Hard to find good resolution. I'd rather the governors quickly work out its province and inform Abe the results. Japan centralized politics has less vision the edges.

As other commenters have pointed out, the mealy-mouthed requests and urgings and the use of social pressure instead of a comprehensive lockdown scheme coupled with general financial support is a type of social darwinist strategy. Small businesses and contract workers will be squeezed into shutting down. I think it is a short sighted strategy that could have terrible consequences in the longer term.

@maria

I’m not quite sure why you received down votes for your comment.

I live in Osaka and work at a public school so will only comment in regards to that. Since March, students have not been coming to school but teachers were still required to come to school.

The state of emergency has been declared but teachers in public schools are still going to school. The Osaka governor has made a decision to close schools on the media but still no word has been passed down to the schools. So until then, although we are not essential workers, due to lack of students, we are still being told to come to work. Maybe we’ll hear something today, maybe tomorrow, maybe at the end of the week but we are still in a ridiculous state of limbo.

@commanteer

Still not tired of your narrative ?

You have the right to consider that the only important part in a pandemic is the prognosis of the disease for yourself but perhaps it is time you understand other people are not you : they can think like you but have another prognosis or they can, even, think totally differently of you. Same for the way of life.

Awww.... well, they can request as much as they like, until it's an order for a complete closure, punishable by prison and/or massive fines, then please -- and THAT is a request -- don't act "shocked" or "surprised" when people are still going to work at open shops despite your heartfelt and honest appeals and lamentations.

But if LDP was to pay businesses and individuals lost income support they would have less available for their pork barelling cronies and friends in construction , agriculture ..etc.....So you know... shoo ga nai...its all very regrettable and all that .

> Abe govt approval rate will have to drop another 10 -20 points before LDP fatcats panick about their re-election chances and reconsider. TIJ.

exactly! want businesses to close? stop the pork barrel spending and properly support the businesses closing so they don't go bankrupt. But this kind of "close your business for the virus but we won't compensate you properly" is for the birds

Finally the governors are finally taking "responsibility" for their citizens and not placing all the burden on others. However, It is obvious that they do no know what their responsiblity really entails.

It is the responsibility of prefecture government and the governors to care for their citizens locally "primary". It is the responsibility of the national government to care for the entire nation domestically in relation to the international community and conditions "primary" while assuring the safety, security, heath and welfare of the country by assuring the prefectures are carrying out their part responsibly and also according the principles and limitations bound by the constitution and laws established by the country. Here for the COVID-19 pandemic action, Abe and the national diet did not make anything a "law". That made sure that the prefectures had as much autonomy as possible in dealing with the virus.

Interestingly it now has exposed the attitude and the abi;lity of the governmors in meeting this natiponal / intyernational level pandemic which has become a crisis in the eyes of many but without the realistic and reliable facts and data to help them make a slound decision by and for themselves and their citizens. They too must have realized, how difficult it was for Abe himself when lives as well as economy of the entire nation was at stake.

@Antoinette:

Thank you for answering. :D

I assumed that since Osaka and Fukuoka were included in the original state of emergency, that schools would be shut. I was surprised that this article suggest they aren't.

I'm going to lose my mind here if one more Government head "requests" something. Do your damn job.

You have the right to consider that the only important part in a pandemic is the prognosis of the disease for yourself but perhaps it is time you understand other people are not you : they can think like you but have another prognosis or they can, even, think totally differently of you. Same for the way of life.

I am glad you agree. Just as people should be free to choose their lifestyle, they should be free to lock themselves in their homes. Just as governments should not be allowed to dictate your dietary habits or lifestyle, it should not be able to dictate your freedom of movement or close down your business.

You suggest you don't like my "narrative," but you haven't written anything to show how it is wrong.

We've had a couple of cold, rainy days in Osaka so I think a lot of people headed out today to the local supermarkets and shops, in my neighborhood at least. Fair amount of kids riding around, busy hair salons, politicians in their vans loudly campaigning for this weekend's local election and cup sake dudes in the local park sitting under the nearly finished cherry blossom trees.

Zero social distancing going on.

commenteer

Reductionist argument on your part. The same argument about being “rational” applies to staying home or at least avoiding crowds and bars.

My wife works in a hospital with two floors-full of corona patients. Lotsa “I went to work because I need to make money” and “went to a bar because I was bored” stories flying around.

Reductionist argument on your part. The same argument about being “rational” applies to staying home or at least avoiding crowds and bars.

By all means, you have the right to stay home. And I would recommend avoiding crowds. I do this myself. It's called free choice and freedom of movement.

My wife works in a hospital with two floors-full of corona patients. Lotsa “I went to work because I need to make money” and “went to a bar because I was bored” stories flying around.

And you think needing money is not important? People need money to live. If a government forces them into unemployment, it is unfairly shifting the burden of fighting this virus onto the poor and vulnerable. You and I may have enough money to get by for a while, but millions do not. Working can be life and death for them.

So far as people going to a bar, yes that's annoying. But education and social pressure are as far as I would want to go. Laws dictating human movement will lead to more death and misery than many here seem to imagine.

If you want businesses to close you need to give them financial assistance as, not only will they face hardship during the closure, they may not exist when the crisis has passed. The economy will tank unless businesses survive.

I find it interesting that all these shutdowns seem to have an ending date of May 6.

So that people can be conveniently forced back to the office on May 7, after "enjoying" their Golden Week "vacation" with everything shutdown?

Commenteer

sure money is important, but your libertarian fantasy/fallacy falls apart when the exercising of your rights puts others’ in jeopardy.

sure money is important, but your libertarian fantasy/fallacy falls apart when the exercising of your rights puts others’ in jeopardy.

Taking away one's ability or right to pay their small businesses' rent and put food on the table whether through peer/social pressure or more authoritarian moves is clearly doing more damage than this virus.

The scientific side of this suggests we have far more coronavirus positive people than has been confirmed which means the aforementioned measures, which in light of a far lower morbidity rate that the public is not yet aware of, are extremely unnecessary and doing more damage than the virus itself, with even more fallout to come.

Have you been tested for the virus?

Is it possible that you are perpetuating a narrative based mostly on fear?

Whats the point in only 7 prefectures in a state of emergency? Either shut them all down or none. Take a look at New Zealand and Singapore. Complete shut down now for a short time is far better than complete shut down when its too late and could last for months. Give the Police the power to prosecute any public places that remain open along with any non essential workers found disobeying the rules.

your libertarian fantasy/fallacy falls apart when the exercising of your rights puts others’ in jeopardy

Basic human rights are not a "libertarian fantasy". Not yet, anyway.

Again, by your logic all people should remain under house imprisonment until all contagious diseases are eradicated. Less reductionist, at what risk of fatality do you consider it acceptable to surrender all our human rights to a government? One in 10,000? One in 1000? People have gone into battle with less than 50/50 odds of surviving to protect or obtain those rights. Millions have died. What would you tell them?

You suggest you don't like my "narrative," but you haven't written anything to show how it is wrong.

The simple fact that I got tired of reading your narrative about people being sheep driven by fear of dying from a virus and willing to thrown away all their freedom because of it, though this time phrased less directly insultingly is in itself proof that it is wrong,.

Your narrative repose on the belief of people react only to the prognosis of the disease for themselves, which nothing more than an assumption which seems driven by your own way to approach the pandemic. You should have noticed just by reading the comments on this website that a lot of people just do not approach the situation through this angle in general (in the event of specific conversation this angle could be used).

Less reductionist, at what risk of fatality do you consider it acceptable to surrender all our human rights to a government ?

So you consider people have the right to choose to remain inside but if they do so they are surrendering their human right to the government. Same go to everything you listed.

You have no idea of people motivation, way of life, action, human right perception ... you just imagine everything to suit your narrative according most likely from your own perception and go up your high horse to judge everyone and not just voicing opinion about their action.

Basic human rights are not a "libertarian fantasy".

I think they are if they come down to, "I can do anything I want."

Eating fatty foods, taking drugs, unsafe sex (assuming consent by all parties), etc. don't generally affect other people. Coughing viruses, just like driving over the speed limit, are quite different things.

So you consider people have the right to choose to remain inside but if they do so they are surrendering their human right to the government. Same go to everything you listed.

Human rights...comedy gold there. Separate discussion, but human rights are temporary at best.

You have no idea of people motivation, way of life, action, human right perception ... you just imagine everything to suit your narrative according most likely from your own perception and go up your high horse to judge everyone and not just voicing opinion about their action

You're right...humans are motivated to do things that reduce their survivability for a short-term gain. That's your amygdala taking control in a novel situation.

The simple fact that I got tired of reading your narrative... is in itself proof that it is wrong,.

Forgive the ellipsis (to save space), but I believe this accurately condenses what you said. In other words, if something bores you it must be wrong. Is that correct?

So you consider people have the right to choose to remain inside but if they do so they are surrendering their human right to the government

I said nothing of the kind. I have been inside quite a bit myself (which is why I am wasting time here). I said people are surrendering their human rights to the government if they support laws that force them to remain inside. The difference between choice and forced compliance.

Eating fatty foods, taking drugs, unsafe sex (assuming consent by all parties), etc. don't generally affect other people. Coughing viruses, just like driving over the speed limit, are quite different things.

I addressed this already, but you risk your life every time you have contact with another person, as there are always deadly viruses about. According to the WHO, lower respiratory infections (like we are seeing now) caused 3 million deaths worldwide in 2016. Add many millions more for other communicable diseases (I think it's something like 17 million people each year dying from all communicable diseases). You are willing to give your government authoritarian powers for what is essentially a blip in these numbers?