Japan to keep Go To Travel campaign running despite virus surge

Yep. Need to pretend everything’s fine in order to save the Olympics.

Hopefully they are canceled by the end of the year.

Though recognizing the "clear signs of an upward trend" in coronavirus cases, particularly in Tokyo, Osaka and Aichi prefectures as well as Hokkaido, Suga called on the public to take "basic preventive measures" to halt the spread of infections.

This only proves which is the real priority, and it is not the public health. Calling on the public to take basic preventive measures is not working, else we would not have this increase in cases, so nobody thinks that keep doing it is going to prevent anything.

In the lead-up to the surge, the commuter train I take became nearly as crowded as during pre-COVID. It seems employers have slipped back into complacency, so no surprise the numbers are rising.

As someone who has a business in tourism in Japan, I have decided to remain closed. Luckily for me I have enough savings to survive for now. I do appreciate that the Go To campaign could be the difference between bankruptcy or survival of my neighbours business who have loans to pay. For those that do not depend on tourism it may seem like a crazy idea. Please think about the beautiful places you have visited in Japan that may not survive. They need help.

Though recognizing the "clear signs of an upward trend" , Suga called on the public to take "basic preventive measures" to halt the spread of infections.

Can't let a pesky thing like a pandemic get in the way of keeping the corporate welfare graft flowing.

It is obvious by now that the Japanese government accepts that the virus cannot be eradicated.

However, encouraging movement around the country will just increase the spread of the infectious virus.

Again, the illogical mindset comes to the fore....

@Jbigs

I absolutely agree with you.

People always say it is selfish to go to travel within a pandemic, but I think it is more selfish to stay home, and watch like millions of people lose their jobs, lose their income, their private business and existence.

If I have enough money, if I am not working in the tourism industry and if my company support home office, than it is easy to say, dont go to travel.

@Virusrex

I always agree with your posts, but not this time.

If everybody follows and implement best personal preventions, like wearing masks, use sanitizer, wash hands...keep social distance... it is absolutely no problem to go to travel.

@jbigs well said !

All these doomsayers here probably have well paid jobs that are not affected by this pandemic.

they have no empathy for those whose sole income & survival relies on tourism or a pandemic-free market.

it’s so easy to say ‘shut everything down’, ‘cancel the Olympics’ from the comfort of your lounge chair, while sipping on a beer & eating potato chips

Human complacency greases the wheels of a virus while its insidious invisibility feeds our complacency. This will be the grimmest winter of our lives. Another "stimulus" check in my stocking from Santa Suga is all I want for Christmas and a vaccine with my Easter egg next year (if I make it that far).

jbigs,

In that vein, the mrs and I frequent local (and often family-owned) shops and restaurants over the corporate chains. Unfortunately, we don't go out that much; hopefully just enough to keep those local shops open.

As of Friday evening, Japan's cumulative cases totaled 116,126, including about 700 from a cruise ship that was quarantined in Yokohama in February.

I’m curious how long they’ll keep mentioning the number aboard the Diamond Princess separately. By now it accounts for way less than 1% of the total and shrinking, it is so insignificant that no longer matters.

I always agree with your posts, but not this time.

If everybody follows and implement best personal preventions, like wearing masks, use sanitizer, wash hands...keep social distance... it is absolutely no problem to go to travel.

And if everybody were capable of doing it we would not have an increase in cases in the first place.

My point is that the recommended measures are already in place and not working, so expecting them to work just because they recommended them again is irrational. Seeing the increase and keep pushing for travel as if it was not happening is even worse.

The death rate is extremely low, so no need to panic.

Let's keep our economy and jobs and mental health in good condition, by going to eat and travel

The death rate is extremely low, so no need to panic.

Let's keep our economy and jobs and mental health in good condition, by going to eat and travel

The death rates are low precisely because very expensive measures are kept in place. Tokyo has some leeway in hospital beds, but many other places in the country don't. A sudden spike that fills them is a recipe of disaster. Waiting until it happens to stop the travel makes no sense, the economy would still be hurt but a lot of unnecessary deaths would be on top of it.

There has been an increase in positive tests, there has been no increase in the rate of fatalities, and ICU usage in Japan is at around 25%, most of which is not COVID related. There have been no fatalities of anyone below 70 for some time, and the vast majority of fatalities are of people nearly a decade older than the median life expectancy in Japan. Perhaps Japan sees economic destruction and the collateral damage from restrictions as being worse than COVID .

Yeah, why not? Keep spreading the virus all over the country until there hundreds or thousands of new cases everyday in all the major cities and and rural centers. Then, Suga can call a state of emergency and blame everybody else for the J-Gov’s inaction to stop the spread.

I think it is important to accept the knowledge that all politicians by nature are selfish and cowardly or they would not be politicians. So there will be no closures, go to campaign stop before the visit of Mr Bach.

second I do not see how travelling and bringing the virus to businesses who work in tourism helps them. Government needs to tie them over that is the only sure and safe way to make them survive. As for restaurants , many were doomed before the crisis because there are too many of them, and with a declining population they can not survive. There must also be made a distinction between mastodons like the Skylark group and independent eateries.

somebody here wants the statistics not to mention the cruise ships numbers independently anymore, but that was ground zero for the virus in Japan, good to remember that. Of course Japan shows them to tell the rest of the world this is an imported problem, not a Japanese one. Damned foreigners again.

Suga called on the public to take "basic preventive measures" to halt the spread of infections.

They weren't doing so already?

Suga's first major blunder. Going to cost unnecessary deaths. I get the economy needs to function but why not keep travel to home prefectures? Oh yeah, he's from the armpit of Japan, Akita. They need visitors.

In other news, Go To Eat is about to end. It started on October 1st, so it's only lasted six weeks. The points total is reportedly 616 oku yen. Go To Travel was originally down to get double that, but there is talk of that increasing.

https://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/articles/2011/13/news139.html

politicians and stupidity go hand in hand.

 But encouraging them to visit other cities around the country and go out to eat will not help containing the infections.

Will not help, but is not the cause of infections, either. We all knew they would increase when it got colder. And how do you justify stopping travel while allowing a much greater number of people to commute to work and school everyday? Wouldn't make any sense.

@Virusrex

According to my knowledge, foreigners can use the go to travel.

What I wanted to say is that, if people stop ignoring the basic preventions like wearing masks, washing hands...and so on, then go to travel is safe and the virus will not spread.

But there are too many people out who still ignoring it, like these guys I saw this morning.

And, many posters here are just sitting in front of their PC and search the Internet for experts statements, science data and so on...

People should go out and see the reality with their own eyes, not with internet and so called expert statements.

You know I really like your posts and I learned a lot about vaccine from your posts. And I am pro Vaxer.

But before the vaccine is available, people can also continue with their lives normaly, as long as they do their personal preventions.

What I wanted to say is that, if people stop ignoring the basic preventions like wearing masks, washing hands...and so on, then go to travel is safe and the virus will not spread.

And if people would respect each other completely there would be no need of police, utopian solutions do not work in reality. The main point is that people are ignoring basic prevention measures, so if the go to travel is bound to make the problem worse.

To justify promoting travel and going out the first step should be to do something to avoid worsening the problem and then think about promoting the economy, the opposite is not justified.

But before the vaccine is available, people can also continue with their lives normaly, as long as they do their personal preventions.

That would be an excellent solution, if people were doing it, but there are still a lot of people that don't, so as a consequence that means people cannot go back to normal lives before that requisite is fulfilled.

You gave a perfect example why the government cannot just promote travel, at least not without compensating with other measures to avoid sudden spikes all over the country, specially with the coming of winter.

I get the economy needs to function but why not keep travel to home prefectures? 

Right, imagine the excitement of restricting travel to within Tokyo prefecture, or Osaka fu... Ha!, we have the excitement of Okutama and Takao. These examples of home prefectures are great to live and work in but get REALLY boring otherwise. Mental health is important to keep the economy going through all of this.

People going out of town need to take usual precautions. But maintaining distance is much easier to do outside of Tokyo than within.

Few months ago lock down ... And now advice to continue travel.... Where is the hint here?

Why does people in Sweden not wear any masks? Interesting isn't it? Cases and deaths not higher there.... Don't forget to change your mask every few hours cos it becomes a bacterial health hazard. And you breathing all those bacterial colonies in... Causes bacterial pneumonia...

Look to the U.K. They had a similar scheme after lockdown and this has been shown to help fuel the second wave they are now suffering.

As I write this, I'm enjoying a stay on a normally overpriced accommodation and of course, I'm not wearing a mask. Well if people don't like the campaign, don't travel. As simple as that, nobody is forcing you to do it.

There has been an increase in positive tests, there has been no increase in the rate of fatalities, and ICU usage in Japan is at around 25%, most of which is not COVID related. There have been no fatalities of anyone below 70 for some time, and the vast majority of fatalities are of people nearly a decade older than the median life expectancy in Japan. Perhaps Japan sees economic destruction and the collateral damage from restrictions as being worse than COVID .

Exactly!

That's why everyone is focusing on "cases", which doesn't really mean much.

As I write this, I'm enjoying a stay on a normally overpriced accommodation and of course, I'm not wearing a mask. Well if people don't like the campaign, don't travel. As simple as that, nobody is forcing you to do it.

Not a single person is complaining about being forced to do it.

That's why everyone is focusing on "cases", which doesn't really mean much.

It does, the same as focusing on a fire alarm, even when the sound would not kill anyone.

People with ability to reason can understand how the number of cases reflects if the disease spreading is being controlled or not with the current measures.

On the other hand, people that consider anyone over the median life expectancy as disposable and not worth saving has nothing to do trying to advice other people what to do about health.

Coronovirus is most serious in old people, so what do we do? Stop university students from going to classes, and subsidize holidays for the old (those with the time and money to afford these things). You couldn't make this up.

All you need is a weekend to travel within Japan, so young families can and have taken advantage of the discounts. But Japan does also need older people to stop hoarding their money, and luckily there are many secluded Japanese-style resorts where they can do so rather safely.