Men play shogi before the parlor closes to follow the government measures against the coronavirus in Osaka on Monday night. Photo: AP/Hiro Komae
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Osaka request for emergency will include store closures, online school classes

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Schools, department stores and amusement parks were all closed under the initial emergency declaration made in April last year but not the second, which was issued in January this year.

and that was the problem the second time around. Seems that the measure did very little last time and Osaka was the only one to finally get it

8 ( +15 / -7 )

Tokyo should do the same too. Tell companies to increase their work-from-home ratio as well. Morning trains are packed these days.

21 ( +25 / -4 )

Perfectly accurate.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

and that was the problem the second time around. Seems that the measure did very little last time

Really? In the second wave it went from 600 cases a day to 80 cases a day. And of course you forgot to mention the UK variant which brought into Japan from a foreigner.

-40 ( +5 / -45 )

On Monday, Shiga Gov Taizo Mikazuki said one hospital in the prefecture will receive severe COVID-19 patients from Osaka and two nurses will be dispatched from Shiga based on a request from Yoshimura last week.

An amazing and swift response to the ‘emergency situation’ !

5 ( +8 / -3 )

JoeintokyoToday 04:38 pm JST

Nice pic of an idiot without his mask on.

Look at his right hand.

He has a mask. He stands, does not talk. I do not see any problem.

-16 ( +4 / -20 )

And of course you forgot to mention the UK variant which brought into Japan from a foreigner.

Incorrect. It was brought into Japan by a Japanese person that had been to the UK and failed to social distance.

Japan has curbed foreign travel for over a year now. Your “It’s foreigners.” Excuse doesn’t hold water.

30 ( +31 / -1 )

Why school closures? It's not the kids who are spreading the virus. It's young adults in their 20's and 30's who think they are invulnerable.

-8 ( +8 / -16 )

The central government said it is scheduled to hold a ministerial meeting Tuesday evening to discuss its response to the request to be made by Osaka Prefecture

A. Scheduled

B. To discuss it response

C. Response to the request

D. Request to be made by Osaka Prefecture

So, no request yet, but they wan to discuss at a meeting to facilitate something that has not been decided upon, yet, they will request to do so through discussion.

Oh my. Either the translations are lost or humanity is doomed.

7 ( +10 / -3 )

Why school closures? It's not the kids who are spreading the virus.

In fact, the predominant strain is N501Y spreads among children. It is also hospitalizing many younger adults in their 30's and 40's. This is not like the original Sars-cov-2 that we have been living with for the past year. It is much more virulent and, notably, is spread by children.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

ZorotoToday 04:46 pm JST

He has a mask. He stands, does not talk. I do not see any problem.

Is he holding his breath?

Yes he was when the picture was taken.

(Can’t you see ?)

-10 ( +3 / -13 )

people has to decide, democracy is a delusion

-19 ( +0 / -19 )

And of course you forgot to mention the UK variant which brought into Japan from a foreigner.

This is the problem with labelling these as the "UK variant" or "South Africa variantt" etc... Ignorant people like MoriNana think that somehow these foreigners did something wrong or they are somehow different to Japanese people.

17 ( +18 / -1 )

Really? In the second wave it went from 600 cases a day to 80 cases a day.

and you forgot to mention that the testing decreased as well.

And of course you forgot to mention the UK variant which brought into Japan from a foreigner.

BS It was brought back by a JAPANESE Airline Pilot.

20 ( +21 / -1 )

so likely we get the lockdown until June 1st to save the precious Olympics?

then we get to lockdown again once the Olympics are over and everyone leaves?

14 ( +15 / -1 )

There politicians who order people to stay home never have to suffer the same hardships as those who their orders/urges/ recommendations affect.

Must be nice to be insulated from the consequences of your decisions. The SoEs have failed every time. And they'll fail again.

-7 ( +6 / -13 )

include store closures, online school classes

If they had done this a year ago they would not be in the situation they are now. However, these measures need to be implemented and stay until the virus is under control with new case numbers down to single figures. If they do not, it will just rebound as it has now and the cycle will continue indefinitely.

8 ( +11 / -3 )

people has to decide, democracy is a delusion

You're gonna flip when you find out what "democracy" means.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

people has to decide, democracy is a delusion

You’ll have to expand on that, old bean. At the moment it’s gibberish.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

How about the packed trains and business commute? Until they stop thinking, "Well, we can't close THAT down!" and start being serious, it's going to keep going up, and be worse.

11 ( +13 / -2 )

 the fact that the UK variant which brought into Japan from a foreigner

Those pesky foreigners bursting Japan’s little bubble of perfection again. You forgot to mention the fact that virus was brought into Japan by returning Japanese who dodged all screening and did not self isolate on their return.

23 ( +24 / -1 )

What about HS online classes?

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

Closing Bars and restaurant earlier is useless! Trains are still super crowded in Tokyo with people literally breathing within mm of each other. When restaurants and bars are shut then people crowd up supermarkets and convenience stores. Some of these people might be infected and they easily transmit it to others by coughing, sneezing and touching multiple items while shopping. Also the shopping baskets in stores are filled with virus so make sure to use proper disinfectant to wipe every inch of it before using!

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Give us money and shut down Tokyo. A pipe dream. Heh, heh....

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Closing elementary and junior high schools will cause enormous problems for working and single parents, as it did last year. Children that young have to be supervised to make sure they pay attention to the teacher. If one or both parents have to work at home themselves, then they will get very little done. Also, for families with, say two young children, living in a 2LDK, for example, that would mean a lack of workspace, not to mention few families would have four computers.

And if the parents have occupations that require them to be at their workplace (hospitals, clinics and about 30 other jobs I can think of), then who will supervise their children?

And what's the point anyway? Young children aren't being infected in such great numbers. It's people in their 20s, 30s and 40s who are doing the spreading.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

But Zoroto, how can you force parents to stay at home if their work requires them to be at their workplace? Would you like me to list at least 20 occupations that cannot be done from home? Not everyone can telework, you know.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

@Zotoro: Hoping for telework is not enough. How dare you even suggest forcing parents to stay at home? If you lived here you would see that is impossible.

-9 ( +3 / -12 )

@smartacus: List those and let other people knowledgeable add to your good list.

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

Closing elementary and junior high schools will cause enormous problems for working and single parents, as it did last year. Children that young have to be supervised to make sure they pay attention to the teacher.

Having been through that last year, the worst would be if they close kinder garden and primary school ( so kids 1-6 years old ), which doesn't seem to be the case here, otherwise with both working parents one has to basically be off all day long. I just thought they might as well as go for online classes for high school and university students.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

This is insane, and the article is very sketchy on the background behind the numbers in serious condition. Are they very elderly - highly likely, and what other conditions do they have? Probably at least one that renders them highly vulnerable.

A look at the Tested Positive by Age graph on the Toyo Keizai page doesn't give any hint of co-morbidities, but does give a very telling breakdown of people who have tested positive by age group.

https://toyokeizai.net/sp/visual/tko/covid19/en.html

And guess what? Almost nobody in their 60s and below is getting seriously ill, and the number of those who do declines to almost zero with decreasing age. The numbers of positive tests would be even higher if the government tested more, which would drive the percentages even lower. And even with almost everyone wearing masks, this virus is still spreading fairly fast. This at least makes you wonder if masks are really effective at all or just a psychological thing so people "feel safer," whatever that's supposed to mean.

The usual suspects will bring up the long-COVID thing, and yes it's probably pretty unpleasant for the people who get it. But it doesn't last forever and most people exposed to this virus don't even know they have it.

Yet Yoshimura, Koike and their ilk want to further put the skids into the economy, ostensibly to save their precious sports festival, yet continue to collect their fat taxpayer-funded salaries and talk incessantly on TV trying to look important.

Good to see some on their forum know we're being sold a crock.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

This is just a ploy for re-election. The numbers will go down anyway after the spring fluctuation of temperature goes away. They can say the mayor did something and contained the virus when it really is just nature.

-4 ( +4 / -8 )

Nice pic of an idiot without his mask on.

Look at his right hand.

He has a mask. He stands, does not talk. I do not see any problem.

haha.. Do you mean no problem for you? Idiot may be a strong word, but why would he be protecting his hand and not his air holes?

6 ( +8 / -2 )

And guess what? Almost nobody in their 60s and below is getting seriously ill, and the number of those who do declines to almost zero with decreasing age. 

So this is normal is it? Happens every year does it? Osaka hospitals should be used to it by now since it’s such a normal occurrence.

Or are all the hospitals overwhelmed now lying? What’s the cover up?

The usual suspects will bring up the long-COVID thing, and yes it's probably pretty unpleasant for the people who get it. But it doesn't last forever and most people exposed to this virus don't even know they have it.

You were right about one thing, someone is trying to sell a ‘crock’.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

This is just a ploy for re-election. The numbers will go down anyway after the spring fluctuation of temperature goes away. 

Just like last year?

9 ( +11 / -2 )

Suga Sori did such a great job controlling the virus just like he promised he would.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

There’s not so much left than to repeatedly suggest a full lockdown for 70 days plus standard deviation, just to extinguish the viruses and variants at maximum or once and for all. You can of course deny , but then please don’t complain anymore and accept worse and worse situations, with triage and masses of deaths. You just will get what you stubbornly insist in getting.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Remember the first state of emergency, was a pain

Carried on as normal as usual, many restaurants stayed open and many stores, no doubt will do this time. Was lovely having so few people around, guess there’s always a positive from everything.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

Watching the Giants-Hanshin game right now, and the stadium is definitely 50% full. The trains are full. The stores are full. People are ignoring their government leaders, other than 99% are wearing masks (although many are below the nose).

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Osaka request for emergency will include store closures, online school classes

Depressing ....

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Great photo for the story.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The "eat in space" at my local supermarket in East Osaka was full with unmasked raucous HS students, workers returning home and some elderly folk enjoying a coffee. About two dozen people packed in a small area, no ventilation and definitely no distancing.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

I noticed this two months ago, many people in Osaka were out and about without masks. I knew it was just a matter of time as the number begin to creep up. Now all of a sudden Osaka wants a state of emergency. Like I saying "WEARING IS CARING"!!!

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Most of these measures, as it usually happens nowadays, lack any type of evidence, or go against evidence, crucial sectors which are actually affected by the virus get widely ignored, and these measures just fuel people getting on each other throats because of panic and hysteria.

The most egregious one is the school measure. All evidence have shown time and time again that children are not a main focus for contagion or spread, children are not vulnerable, but on the other hand, education is CRUCIAL for proper development and career future.

This is about 80% politics, and 20% science.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

about 80% politics, and 20% science.

Well said!

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

This mahjong place is a short walk from my house, trust me the people round there won’t all be closing their bars. If you know the right people you can find places open until 5am even in SOE, not that I would go of course

0 ( +5 / -5 )

The SoEs have failed every time.

In Japan, yes.

In all honesty, they have failed everywhere with the possibility exception of New Zealand and Australia which went with some of the harshest including near total closure of the countries.

All the rest keep closing, opening, closing, opening, etc...

I guess being an island country, Japan could have done like New Zealand and shut the country to anyone entering or leaving but I can imagine the freak-outs many here would have if it had done that.

Plus many of the countries that ordered full lockdown, border closures, etc...also offered a whole range of financial support to individuals, businesses, etc...so they could do it.

Japan gave 2 Abenomask and ¥100,000.

Compare that to places like Canada that gave payroll support, $2000 CND to those out of work, etc...and Canada's support was nothing compared to many places in Europe.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

The health care system is near collapse. After 15 months, exactly how many beds were added?

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Antiquesaving: "Japan gave 2 Abenomask and ¥100,000. Compare that to places like Canada that gave payroll support, $2000 CND to those out of work, etc...and Canada's support was nothing compared to many places in Europe."

Yeah but, come on, man! Where would Japan find the money? I mean, you can't expect them to spend the BILLIONS of dollars the Olympics are costing on the people, right? or maybe not shelling as much out to third-world countries on a whim, or cancel the jet fighters Abe ordered from Trump under threat of auto-tariffs and more if he didn't make such big deals, etc. Asking a government to help its people over enriching itself is just too much.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Japan could have done like New Zealand and shut the country to anyone entering or leaving but I can imagine the freak-outs many here would have if it had done that.

Japan for the most part has been doing just that.

The number of arrivals are actually similar to Australia's numbers, with just a few thousand travelers per month.

The total number of arrivals to Australia from March 2020 to February 2020 is 1,059,250 persons, compare that to Japan on the same time frame, and you get the similar 1,380,965, and that's without even taking into account that Japan has 5 times the population size of Australia, and most of the arrivals in this time period from both countries have been nationals.

Let me add that the WHO has never been in favor of border restrictions as a control measure for a virus, and has in many times called for countries to stop doing border restrictions as a control measure.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

from March 2020 to February 2020

Correction: from March 2020 to February 2021

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I'm afraid we will have to euthanize the Olympics. We simply cannot have an Olympics when an epidemic is raging and no end is in sight.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Joe- Masks fail to stop the virus and prolonged use causes serious health issues, according to Stanford University.

Many in the U.S. have stopped using them and yes, including Blacks who don’t want to be seen as a pawn in the MSM narrative.

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

The most egregious one is the school measure. All evidence have shown time and time again that children are not a main focus for contagion or spread, children are not vulnerable, but on the other hand, education is CRUCIAL for proper development and career future.

We are talking about B.1.1.7 in Osaka. The data about traditional SARS-CoV-2 are kind of outdated as children seems to have become more keen to spread the virus :

https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n383

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/b-117-kids-covid-185755408.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr

So even if they seem to not be more affected by it :

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642%2821%2900030-4/fulltext

By becoming an active vector they increase the risk of the virus reaching more susceptible to complications people even among children.

And closing school doesn't mean depriving children of education. Education do not need to cram bunch of children together in one place. The problem with closing school is more related to what is around the education part and was overlooked.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Please someone should tell them that 8pm emergency won’t change anything close whole country for 2 weeks or keep doing this for next 10 15 years because Japan is so slow to vaccinate people

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Japan should do a totally lockdown at the same time roll out the vaccine, the Japanese are so far behind it seems like it’s never going to end.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

We are talking about B.1.1.7 in Osaka. The data about traditional SARS-CoV-2 are kind of outdated as children seems to have become more keen to spread the virus

I would recommend you to read the data and not just the bombastic headline.

I'm going to quote the BMJ news report you shared:

in Israel in mid-December, the proportion of new daily cases accounted for by children aged under 10 had risen by nearly a quarter (23%).

What this means is that the number of cases of children under the age of 10 raised by 23% of the previous number, which is still not much if the original case number is actually small, so lets see Israel's data.

The distribution of cases was 7.7% in July, and 10.85% by December, and the distribution of cases is still lower than for most groups, with the 10-19 and 20-29 having the biggest share of distribution of cases, with about 40% of all cases.

But number of cases is not the only statistic that has been used to show how schools are not places where COVID spread, as the WHO has multiple times made press releases and recommendation updates saying the schools HAVE NOT been shown to be a major source of spread in the community.

Transmission in Schools in highly associated with transmission in the community as a whole, and in fact, for example, for college infections it has been identified that most of the transmission that occur in within the staff, and not with students.

So even if they seem to not be more affected by it :

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642%2821%2900030-4/fulltext

Please, stop just skimming articles you post if you want to "make a point" out of them.

One, this is a correspondence piece for The Lancet. This is not a scientific paper, and it doesn't pretend to be, it is a quick correspondence piece trying to clarify currently available information and data with what has been said in the media, and the conclusion is actually that they didn't found much evidence of that variant affecting more children.

I'm going to quote from the piece:

These early second wave data show that many children and young people have been admitted to hospital. This might be due to the higher prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 within our local community. Indeed, the number of adult patients admitted to King's College Hospital in the second wave has also increased by about a third. Importantly, we have found no evidence of more severe disease having occurred in children and young people during the second wave, suggesting that infection with the B.1.1.7 variant does not result in an appreciably different clinical course to the original strain. These findings are in keeping with early national data. Severe acute respiratory COVID-19 remains an uncommon occurrence in children and young people.

In other words, it seems the increase of children been admitted is probably because of higher prevalence on the community (meaning, there are more cases overall), and this variant doesn't seem to have any difference from the original in young people.

And closing school doesn't mean depriving children of education. Education do not need to cram bunch of children together in one place. The problem with closing school is more related to what is around the education part and was overlooked.

You can talk about how "education should be" and how to have a "better education", and that's good and all, and I probably even agree with you in that part, but we need to see what we have NOW, and admit that reality.

Closing school does mean for a lot of people depriving children of an education, or at list, making it more difficult for them to get a proper education.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

I think you should reread my post.

Everyone is aware that SARS-CoV-2 original was in fact not so easily spreadable by children thus closing of school was in fact not a necessity.

Now, we are talking about B.1.1.7. There are several countries which are concerned that it seems to be spread more easily by children and that further studies are needed. Do you really believe they took in account only the number of cases ?

I do not get your part about the Lancet (where did I make description of the links I gave as scientific paper, letter from my daddy or whatever?) : so I link when saying B1.1.7 does not seems to generate more severe cases and you go out of your way to explain that B.1.1.7 does not seems to generate more severe cases and that I should not skimming. Since I ended up with the same result as you ...

the distribution of cases is still lower than for most groups, with the 10-19 and 20-29 having the biggest share of distribution of cases, with about 40% of all cases

for college infections it has been identified that most of the transmission that occur in within the staff, and not with students

I get that one is about worldwide and another about Israel. But still, moreover since lot of students ended up having online class.

Closing school does mean for a lot of people depriving children of an education, or at list, making it more difficult for them to get a proper education.

That is not closing school which create that but not putting in place tool to get education. And as said before, what is around education should not be overlooked either. And we are talking about children most likely being out of school for most likely 1 month in Osaka prefecture, so it is not like it is some kind of over-difficult issue to deal with.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

And even if you consider the children are not keen to catch and spread B.1.1.7, who do you expect to provide education if the teachers and staff fall ill of covid-19 ?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@P. SmithToday

Here is a link to the study, which should have been included with the above post:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306987720333028

So it's not Standford University but some guy with no expertise writing without proof in a journal made specifically for untested, unproven hypothesis?

Surprising!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

@P. Smith

Don’t kill the messenger. I was simply providing a link to the study, not endorsing it.

The opposite, I mean it was easy to understand why the original comment did not include a reference.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Now, we are talking about B.1.1.7. There are several countries which are concerned that it seems to be spread more easily by children and that further studies are needed. Do you really believe they took in account only the number of cases ?

You are the one not reading what I wrote. The available evidence does not point out to higher distribution of cases among young people, and B.1.1.7 has not been found to have more severe effects or anything of the kind.

Not to mention that you are just speculating, as none of the authorities cited a concern for B.1.1.7 as a reason to close schools.

That is not closing school which create that but not putting in place tool to get education. And as said before, what is around education should not be overlooked either. And we are talking about children most likely being out of school for most likely 1 month in Osaka prefecture, so it is not like it is some kind of over-difficult issue to deal with.

But it is.

First, online education is not common in Japan. One of the big reasons is that in Japan most people do not own a PC of any kind, so for many people they would have to probably use their own phone in order to take classes, which isn't really a good thing.

Also, a lot of people are not aware, but Osaka is a pretty big prefecture, and there are a LOT of rural areas, with schools with pretty limited budgets and limited resources, no experience AT ALL on online education.

There is a reason why UNICEF has said that we are in the middle of an education emergency, and has constantly called governments to stop school closures.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

The heading of the this article is no brainer. It should have been implemented concurrently.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

People are continuing to conflate someone not wearing a mask with someone being sick I see..

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The available evidence does not point out to higher distribution of cases among young people,

Which I said. I brought out statement from several countries that there was concern about it and more research was needed.

and B.1.1.7 has not been found to have more severe effects or anything of the kind.

Which I said.

Not to mention that you are just speculating,

Yes, I am. I took in account the previous national replies, current situations and international replies. After, if you prefer they are in adequation WHO guidance :

file:///C:/Users/owner/AppData/Local/Temp/WHO-2019-nCoV-Adjusting_PH_measures-Schools-2020.2-eng.pdf

And when I am at it UNICEF :

https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/01/1081912

= booth agree that in extreme situation school closure can be a (last resort) response as long as everything is done to protect their overall well-being, health and safety.

Osaka is a pretty big prefecture

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaka_Prefecture

1,905.14 km2 (735.58 sq mi)

ranking 46th by size out of 47

there are a LOT of rural areas

like Misaki ? 330 persons per km²

Did not bother cheeking the city, but every other town got at least 500 persons per km².

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Osaka_Prefecture_by_population

I live there, come again.

You understand that it is the prefecture government which is supposed to deal with the issue. If that mean providing computer with Internet to the one needing it, so be it. Same for training teachers to do online class. Same for everything else which was overlooked or not during the previous school closure.

It is more than time to have online option and will be beneficial in the long run. Lot of children every year end up out of school for long period of time, everything they will successfully create can be put in use on the long run and everything they already created for these could be adjusted for the current situation.

And as said before, it is 1 month, including golden week. If you find it is so much of a big deal to get children out of school for 1 month, please go demonstrate in front of government building so that they get rid of the horrendous summer vacation which endanger the career future of 6 to 15 years old.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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