A station staff member with a protective mask stands at a subway station in Tokyo on Thursday. . Photo: AP/Eugene Hoshiko
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Coronavirus temporary legislation likely to clear lower house on March 12

40 Comments

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Too slow, car too late.

Stop hding the figures with so many Chinese tourists still coming in.

Japanese hardly do not wash their hands very properly and large crowds are very common. No disrespect but facts.

Having 300 cases only like in France or Germany is unbelievable.

10 ( +19 / -9 )

The opposition has dismissed Abe's insistence that a law revision is needed to cope with the pneumonia-causing new coronavirus.

Abe wants to revise the law most likely because the present law was approved by the Noda cabinet back in 2012.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

Anyone get the Star Wars reference here?

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

First poster, agreed.

And Tokyo and surrounding area is one of the most densely crowded places on earth. Something like 38,00,000 people. The numbers just don't add up.

There is not way there are not thousands and thousands of cases. Authorities have no choice to prepare for the worst. They must.

Hopefully though, all turns out to be a false alarm and we have a happy Olympics in safety Japan.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

I hope that testing kits will become more available out here in ‘inaka’. I’ve had the symptoms and my boss just asked me to stay home for a week because my fever hasn’t broken. Haven’t been tested though.

10 ( +11 / -1 )

Researchers on Chinese official radio, say the virus is more invasive, it not only attack the respiratory system, it attack the circulation system such as the heart, the liver and spleen and muscle tissue

-8 ( +2 / -10 )

@Rosalind

You don't know about the hotline you can call? It's only in Japanese though. One of the criteria is that if you have four days or more at over 38.5oC, from memory...

Look up the number in your area and give it a call. Nobody is going provide a means to test you. You need to to through the right channels.

https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/kenkou_iryou/covid19-kikokusyasessyokusya.html

6 ( +6 / -0 )

The opposition has dismissed Abe's insistence that a law revision is needed to cope with the pneumonia-causing new coronavirus. Some opposition party lawmakers say the government should have acted earlier if the current law cannot be applied as is.

I can agree the government should have acted earlier. However, I can understand the need for the updated law and measures. Mandating people stay in doors. Right now, companies are fighting to prevent having their employees take time off or work from home. So I see a big reason for the law.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

And now we see how the coronavirus fear machine is being used. Countries that lacked a mechanism to put people under lockdown are passing emergency laws like this, and suddenly the government has sweeping new powers to control the movement of people and regulate the economy.

Passing laws in the midst of fear frenzy is almost always bad. I'm sure that people will eventually rue this emergency coronavirus law as much as Americans grew to rue the Patriot Act. Fear should not drive decision-making.

7 ( +11 / -4 )

Thank god just in time, amazing....oh it's a week away, well guess I should practice origami untill the government actually help.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

What does the administration intend to achieve with the new law. It has failed to curb the mask shortage as well as ramp up pcr testing. I am not holding any hope that the situation will get better, hope I am wrong but see the situation turning for the worst next week or week after next.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

Opposition parties are saying existing legislation already allows all this! Oh, wait maybe they can slip something 'extra' in! North Korea has got nothing on Japan!

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

How did Japan come to be infected by this virus? Shouldn't the country that started this problem be held responsible and liable for funding the costs.

-7 ( +7 / -14 )

Democracy takes time. Communist China is quick and drastic.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Let's hope that under new emergency programs we will still be able to maintain a good balance of social order and civil liberty. Swift, bipartisan moves under such crisis are also positive.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

TP just arrived today on the shelves of my local Eastern Tokyo Conan's Home Center. Limit is one big bundle. Thought people might want to know.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

@Burningbush

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covid-19#Prognosis

Prognosis - you have to wait until the 15th of April to claim the assumption is false, obviously if the necessary data is available and back your statement.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Democracy takes time. Communist China is quick and drastic.

It is because of a repressive communist regime, the virus went unchecked.

If it was a democracy, the outbreak would have been contained long ago..

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

How come people still believe in Japanese official number of cases.

Since what happened with the Fukushima global crisis, it is clear that Japan's government is lying to preserve the country's economic interest.

I'm not Korean, I don't give a damn about what the south Korean press is saying about Japan (still sore for being run over by Japan during ww2 ... get over it guys, without Japanese companies heavy investment in Korea after the war, you would still be an agricultural country like any other emerging west Asian countries).

But let's use common sens in that situation.

Lot's of Japanese people go to China or Italy for vacation and lots of Chinese people go to Japan for vacation. After coming back, Japanese people will go to work using public transportation, and having worked there for a year myself, I can tell you, you are bound to touch other people and infect them if you are already infected.

Accepting that, there is no way Japan's number of infected is lower than Italy

I really think Japan is lowering the number of cases to save their Olympic Games and nothing else.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

If it was a democracy, the outbreak would have been contained long ago..

Not necessarily. Democracies, such as Italy, are failing hopelessly to contain this deadly virus. I agree though that PRCs Communist totalitarian regime gave rise to this disease and covered it up shockingly.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Not necessarily. Democracies, such as Italy, are failing hopelessly to contain this deadly virus.

Not true, cobber. Italy is not failing hopelessly to contain it. At this point, the virus is still very much concentrated in certain northern regions. This is some degree of success.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Ah well... so now it begins - there's going to be a mad run on the shops for all long lasting foods - the shelves will be laid bare - just like they are in Australia.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Will the government also order people to attend the Olympics?

2 ( +4 / -2 )

All this is a consequence of the lack of an emergency law in the constitution. Many academic experts have been warning of this problem for years. And instead of seeking a solution on a permanent basis through national consensus. The ruling parties and the opposition continue to fight, always thinking about the electoral yield.

Now we have to find an improvised solution. And as always. By creating laws that border on constitutional illegality.

The Democratic Constitutional Party of Japan is one of the main culprits in the lack of permanent special laws for cases such as the coronavirus. And now Yukio Edano's party will be forced to collaborate with Abe. in creating laws that he doesn't even believe in or want. Let's see how you justify your voters further.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

How come people still believe in Japanese official number of cases

Experts' view alongside our commonsense agree that the actual infection number in Japan must be larger than that officially announced. It's an open secret; yet knowing that, the government is making a priority to provide healthcare resources on fast track to life-threatened patients. I find the course of action sensible and already working. To date the death toll has remained very low at 12 (6 on landside, 6 from the cruiser) while Italy as a "latecomer" has already outnumbered Japan with its toll of 107.

Free, universal testing could risk overwhelming available healthcare services. To put it another way, it doesn't matter how many more cases are confirmed, an increase at an exponential rate (I don't think it likely to happen in Japan, though) so long as local hospitals stay ready to provide services to those infected people. I assume that Italy and Iran are failing in this regard of priority and readiness.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Honestly I do not know what are the right actions to take today or tomorrow in Japan.

But the problem is that nobody seems to be in charge of doing something.

Priorities are quite simple:

1) Epidemic and panic control

2) Economy resilience

3) Tokyo Olympics

...

130) Political agenda

....

What will come first...?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

"I hope that testing kits will become more available out here in ‘inaka’. I’ve had the symptoms and my boss just asked me to stay home for a week because my fever hasn’t broken."

@Rosalind- I am glad that the boss didn't say 'come in anyway'. I wish you a speedy recovery.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

How come people still believe in Japanese official number of cases.

Is there any other source ? Do we have alternative facts or figures?

Not necessarily. Democracies, such as Italy, are failing hopelessly to contain this deadly virus.

The first step towards containment is acknowledgement , the CCP took more than a month to admit there was an outbreak, this allowed infected people to travel and infect others.

The mess that we are in today, global outbreak, travel industry at a standstill, economies and companies collapsing is all because of this delay.

Italy has acknowledged there is a problem, identifying and containing is another problem.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

"Japanese hardly do not wash their hands very properly and large crowds are very common. No disrespect but facts."

Neither do the Brits (since you generalised all Japanese). No disrespect but facts.

"Only one in five people wash their hands with soap after going to the toilet. Many of those people will then go on to eat or prepare food for themselves or others leading to contamination and running the risk of causing illnesses such as food poisoning and flu."

"https://www.careukhealthcare.com/news/why-you-need-to-be-washing-your-hands-properly-every-time"

"Having 300 cases only like in France or Germany is unbelievable."

!It comes as the number of confirmed cases in the UK rose to 164 - the biggest increase in a single day so far."

"https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51771815"

This small number of cases must be true then!

To recap:

1) Two countries with appalling hand washing methodologies;

2) One of them reports a low level of contamination; they must be LYING;

3) The other one, equally (if not even worse) dirtier reports a small number of 164 contaminated cases; no LIES, flying about.

Certainly NOT. Not even half a lie.

Btw, proud to be British (and I do like washing my hands).

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Washing your hands and then the next minute needing to use that washed hand to grab handle and open heavy doors in public which defeats the purpose of washing hands. Not saying washing hands is bad but just pointing out it isn't that easy fighting this virus when out in the public, how about fueling your car in self service gas stations, the pumps are not sanitized or paying and receiving change when you go shopping to name but a few.

There are just too many variables involved to be careful of.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Rosalind... you are not alone in this! 4 of my coworkers show similar symptoms and have been staying at home for a week now ( according to them fever above 38.5degrees for 4+ days ). But they haven’t been tested when they visited the designated clinics! There are many more infected people out there who haven’t been tested. As of March 6 only 6647 people in Japan have been tested! If all the people showing these symptoms are tested then the number would obviously be higher!!!

5 ( +5 / -0 )

@Jim... my friend’s wife and daughter also down with fever for 6 days now and despite going to the right clinic as advised by the authorities they weren’t tested for the virus! So yes, you are absolutely right that the actual number of infected are much higher in Japan!

5 ( +5 / -0 )

@Jim...maybe more of your coworkers are infected now without showing symptoms! Take care buddy!

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Finally! Never, has something as mundane, such as purchasing Toilet paper been so enjoyable!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Bog roll insurance coming soon.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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