Gov't to set guidelines on economic restart on Monday

With the amount of new cases and untested people it seems a little premature to lift SOE restrictions.

Also on Saturday, the Osaka prefectural government decided at a coronavirus countermeasures task force meeting that it will decide on whether requests for business suspensions and calls to refrain from going out could be eased, based on the number of virus infections in the prefecture as of May 15.

On Friday, Yoshimura said he intends to create his prefecture's own guidelines that could help businesses to restart.

On this Saturday Osaka reported 17 new cases (out of 543 tested) showing an overall downward trend. Governor Yoshimura has published on twitter several key criteria for reopening such as R0 and number of seriously ill patients etc.

It's interesting to note that Kato, the minister of health, labor and welfare, wasn't even mentioned in the article. Is this an indication of how much influence or lack thereof the medical community has in this matter? Being a small country and opening up prematurely could have dire consequences for not only the adjoining prefectures but the country as a whole. Hell, prefectures and cities can't even control the movement of people to the beaches and shopping districts let alone the pachinko parlors. Nishimura shouldn't talk about having to do this for the long stretch, stating the obvious only reveals his own ignorance. A tragic comedy if ever...

The draft on the policy, which will be revised Monday, also says classes will resume in phases

Daughter’s private university classes will be online for the rest of the spring semester.

Just following America like sheep as usual. Economy first, human cost second.

Failure of teleworking cover up with closure of schools has been a joke. Didn’t really achieve anything based on the number of cases. If anything made the public costs worse.

A "restart".... this assumes that there was something resembling an actual shutdown, in the first place.

This could have fooled me, at least compared to what a lot of other countries are doing. It's been a lot of "business as usual" in Japan, at least as far as I could see.

Sure.

Open up.

Be forced to close down again.

Rinse and repeat. Keep the virus circulating here there, everywhere.

Sounds like a decisive plan.

And down here schools have already extended their being closed for another two weeks.

On a side note, the Gov here has taken a 30% cut in pay, and his deputies 10% cuts each, and will use the money to help out those in need!

@arrgh typn

It's been a lot of "business as usual" in Japan, at least as far as I could see.

I take it you don't own a business or work in a tertiary industry.

This is insanity. Japan now has almost as many deaths as Denmark, a country of 6 million people, and so we’re trashing the economy for generations. Far more people will die from the poverty and stress caused by the coming depression and inflation than from the virus. Tell the over-70s and the chronically sick to stay home and re-open everything else.

A "restart".... this assumes that there was something resembling an actual shutdown, in the first place.

This could have fooled me, at least compared to what a lot of other countries are doing. It's been a lot of "business as usual" in Japan, at least as far as I could see.

Well, perhaps you don’t see very far. I don’t know where you live, but here in Kyoto a lot of businesses are closed for an unknown period of time. The city did an investigation less than a week ago showing that 90% of 255 investigated entertainment businesses (pachinkos, cinemas, bowling, sports clubs, game centers etc.) are temporarily closed.

Furthermore, in the 4 major shopping districts about 75% of restaurants/eateries, hostess bars, night clubs, and regular clubs were closed after 8 pm.

All major shopping centers and a lot of cafes are also closed. Tourist attractions as well.

Subway traffic is down 60% on weekdays, up to 80% in weekends and people using the bus has dropped 55-70%. As a comparison, these numbers are an average 74% in Oslo, Norway.

Indeed, it is not a complete lockdown, but a lot of businesses choose to shut down. This of course has a substantial effect on the economy.

I take it you don't own a business or work in a tertiary industry.

For what it's worth, I've been partially furloughed and had to take a pay cut. But that's due to market conditions, not to any kind of coordinated government response. I still stand by my point that the "shutdown" in Japan has been woefully underdone compared to many other countries.

while the use of facilities in the 13 prefectures will remain in place, restrictions for the other areas with few infection cases will be eased based on the situation on the ground

This sounds good to me. The countryside has few Covid-19 cases, but also a terminally weak economy less equipped to deal with disruptions. The economy vs. virus risk equation is different to the cities.

Never was so little said by so many

@arrgh type

Sorry to hear. Hope its just temporary

For what it's worth, I've been partially furloughed and had to take a pay cut.

> But that's due to market conditions, not to any kind of coordinated government response.

I would say the government telling businesses to close, declaring a state of emergency and not providing sufficient support may have caused negative market conditions.

Too early, way too early.

The virus doesn't care which prefectures start again and which don't.

Keep everything (at least) the way it is for now until you can see a much improved down-trend!

Everything else will only cause new closures in 2 to 3 weeks time.

not Okinawa. As long as they keep people from mainland coming here I don’t see why we can’t open up restrictions. We are a island so just keep the nasties up in mainland.

Here in Asaka, Saitama, it is possible to see great adherence to preventive measures as my most people wearing masks, closure of several amusement places, reduction of opening business time, and tightening of preventive procedures in companies as taking body temperature of employees, alcohol bottles for hands disinfection, individualized compartments in the food court,etc.

“The worst scenario of the games being canceled has been avoided,” said an upbeat business leader.

The SARSCoV-2. Most of the opinions are exactly that, speculative, conjunctures, hoary prejudice wedded to varying agendas - very little reflects the metrics of the virus. Nor specific geographies and demographics. What is anecdotal: presented as some manner of factual understanding or insightful. None reflecting any actual science. Even proclamations by MDs are for the most immediate impressions, though specific, are parochial. It en-flames the economic disaster and does little to mitigate the contagion.

Abe stated that he is considering changing the academic school year: it would begin in September. Such a notion is embraced by the dingbat Mayor of Tokyo, hardly an expert on education or public health. The issue of contracts, which is a tenet of law, will certainly be in play: as a teacher, in a private elementary school my contract begins in March and ends in March. That's a legal contract. Same with the junior high and senior high and the university within which we are institutionalized. Many are willing to go to the mats. Numerous colleagues have refused to teach on-line, as it isn't what they were hired to do. They are homeroom, classroom and subject teachers. Abe, at best, is haphazard in his design dealing with the pandemic, other than to retain power and bring The Games to Japan.

Had Abe acted in January, imposing the clampdown during what is a seasonal lull in consumer activity, along with banning foreign tourists, it would have been a model for one means of response. Instead, there was a not well documented intent, that the concern was The Olympic Games. That arises again, as he stated ominously, all SARSCoV-2 must be eradicated in Japan, for the games to go forward. This will juice all decisions. And the play-makers are powerful corporate industries with enormous power and resources.

Fat chance. No matter the success or failure of his rather slipshod attempt to deal with the virus, it obvious there actually is not A Plan. It's simply a set of measures more wedded to politics. A list of the sponsors of The Olympics, Alibaba, Airbnb, Coca-Cola, G.E. Westinghouse, Toyota and VISA, to name a few who have contributed 310,000,000,000 yen, illustrates the hordes of cash involved. Anything and everything Abe does is mitigated by the import to hold The Games. It is economics and politics, not health & welfare, excepting how it enhances the goal.

It is foolhardy, to suppose that the present contagion will not spread to Central & South America, throughout Africa, and back, through the present hotspots in the world. If Japan, extinguishes the virus, without a vaccine in place, WHY would you allow visitors from nations where the virus is still prevalent to enter the country?

The economic distress among independently owned and operated businesses, small and medium sized, is producing dire circumstances - its effects are immediate on the businesses affected and will impact other entities, a simple example: automobile loans. Train-wreck Abe-style.