Surging coronavirus undermines leaders' support in Japan, S Korea

You listen to the WHO and keep everything going, you will be shafted. You listen to Taiwan, you will recover quicker, stronger.

The WHO takes China's big pharma'se no money. Taiwan doesn't.

Binary choice.

In Japan, which is hoping to stage the postponed summer Olympics next year, testing has remained relatively low, peaking at about 50,000 in one day recently. Testing in Tokyo, which has the capacity for more than 60,000, is now about 9,000 a day.

50,000 were tested in a day in a country of 126.5 MILLION recently and claims that that Tokyo its self has the capacity to test 60,000 a day but rarely tests more 9000 a day is supposed to have been comforting news?

I wonder what the bobble heads in power are going to spin in the new year when the hospitals are overrun because they did nothing to stop the spread and instead helped to spread it around Japan with their Go To Travel nonsense?

Unfortunately, the South Korean supporters cannot spin this into anything positive. The only thing that works is quarantine, stay at home, and lockdowns.

The only thing that works is quarantine, stay at home, and lockdowns.

Agree. And if we don't do these 3 things soon, we are in for a really rough ride. Remember, winter is just starting. We are only barely halfway into December and we still have January and February, which are even colder, so we are nowhere near the end of the tunnel. And god only knows what the state of things are going to be like with Christmas festivities, bonenkai, shinenkai, and shogatsu family gatherings.

I wonder what the bobble heads in power are going to spin in the new year when the hospitals are overrun because they did nothing to stop the spread and instead helped to spread it around Japan with their Go To Travel nonsense?

Well actually a nurse I know contacted me and has told me her hospital is nearly there. She painted a really stark picture and one that is totally different to what the gov says. Even though I'm one of the skeptics who has been saying all along that the situation is worse than we are lead to believe, when I read her email, the hair on the back of my neck stood up

I can't say for Korea, but for Japan, if the testing is so low, you need to stay put. Nishimura and the other covidiots kept spouting that there wasn't any evidence associating the travel campaign with the surge in cases. It's this type of thinking that got us here, it's pretty dang obvious and it's not like the government performed a study to justify making a statement like that. They'll never admit that their idiot campaign is responsible for this, besides, Go To Travel is grammatically incorrect, so much for the brains being paid for by our taxes.

"In Japan, which is hoping to stage the postponed summer Olympics next year, testing has remained relatively low"

Oh, I guess they forgot to mention that deaths as well has remained relatively low as well. I wonder why?

"The only thing that works is quarantine, stay at home, and lockdowns."

Really? Germany, France and the US tried that, they are now being hit a lot harder than Japan.

South Korea, meanwhile, has aggressively ramped up testing to about 89,000 people a day as of Sunday, compared with just over 22,000 in early October.

and did it help? If testing is the key, why are they being just as hard as Japan?????

@Nihonview

We were missing your view.

Welcome back.

If testing is the key, why are they being just as hard as Japan?????

Imported transmission. They have had travel corridors to/from China since April. Do you trust Chinese numbers?

Japanese corps with supply chain in China are probably lobbying furiously behind close doors for similar arrangements. Once that floodgate opens, you will see how much worse it can get in Japan with low testing and non-existent tracing.

Suga could survive many things and a correct corona strategy would have kept him in the PM seat for years. But even the patient Japanese population will see they are one of the last developed nations to have vaccinations and revolt against that. As the 4th economy in the world that is unforgivable.

he did not cancel GoTo because of personal reasons, remaining PM.

Suga is gone for September but who is next ? Koike ? But she is also using the Tokyo people as disposable pawns on her chessboard.

There's that word again, "Surging". How is trickling up a few or down a few every day classified as "Surging"? What planet are these writers living on?

@Nihonview

Really? Germany, France and the US tried that, they are now being hit a lot harder than Japan.

I agree!

Germany is going again from tomorrow into a strict lockdown, and most of the people are very angry about that, because the lockdown in the past didn't bring a big effect. Just contain the Virus for a while and that's it.

The Key-Point to get this Virus under control is: the behavior of the people.

As long as the people don't implement even the simple basic rules (e.g. wearing mask) in their own personal lives to prevent the spread, all lockdowns or whatever countermeasure a government will give you, will not bring anything.

Do you trust Chinese numbers?

Never Ever!

Another piece of evidence that there is no real way to prevent this virus running its course.  It will likely be with us forever, like the seasonal flu.  Vaccine and improved therapeutics will make it less scary, but will likely never eliminate it.

One day I suppose it will no longer be the scary monster that it has been over the last 9 months.

Really? Germany, France and the US tried that, they are now being hit a lot harder than Japan.

Really? Japan is not testing. That's why the numbers are so low. If Japan is doing so much better than Europe, why are many of the hospitals over their capacity? How many Japanese nurses have you talked to? I've talked to 2. One in Kanto and one in Kansai. BOTH have said to me that the situation in the hospitals is much worse than the gov. is letting on.

South Korea, meanwhile, has aggressively ramped up testing to about 89,000 people a day as of Sunday, compared with just over 22,000 in early October.

and did it help? If testing is the key, why are they being just as hard as Japan?????

Japan 179,65 cases 2,585 deaths.

S Korea 44,364 cases 600 deaths

COVID-19 pandemic by country and territory - Wikipedia

As usual, your information is deliberately misleading

As year 2020 is coming to an end, no sign of Covid's demise. Instead, it continues to ravage, killing people and bringing along huge collateral damages of all kinds.

After weighing a number of possibilities, we think the virus were cultured in secretive labs to develop lethal bio-weapons during the past decades if not a century. The virus could be accidentally leaked or released. Most unfortunately, the whole world has been affected. The rest is history..

Hope year 2021 will be a better year, much better. But that could well be hoping against hope..

After weighing a number of possibilities, we think the virus were cultured in secretive labs

Who is this we of whom you speak?

If the govt can't even protect its own people from the virus, what else can they do ?

In Japan, which is hoping to stage the postponed summer Olympics next year, 

Who is hoping, apart from 18% of the population?

One article ago. One day ago.

Korea supporters talking how much better Korea is handling the situation, how great they are doing, and how bad Japan is doing.

Oh wait.... Don't let this article stop your perfect view on how South Korea is handling the situation and everything under the sky.

he needs to do the right thing and resign

Whether a country or region is doing enough testing should be assessed based on the positivity rate and not on the number of tests," said Fumie Sakamoto, infection control manager at the St Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo. "The positivity rate for Tokyo is now over 6%, so we should be doing a bit more testing to bring the number down."

The goal is and has been to make the bad looking numbers look good rather than mitigate the spread of the

virus, by testing, tracing and isolating. Sakamoto, I will tell you what, don't do any testing at all and the number will be Zero and can claim like Kim that Japan has zero cases.

South Korea, meanwhile, has aggressively ramped up testing to about 89,000 people a day as of Sunday, compared with just over 22,000 in early October.

and did it help? If testing is the key, why are they being just as hard as Japan?????

South Korea, meanwhile, has aggressively ramped up testing to about 89,000 people a day as of Sunday, compared with just over 22,000 in early October.

and did it help? If testing is the key, why are they being just as hard as Japan?????

Meanwhile the scourge of the earth, the US, is at 2,000,000 tests per day. Maybe that desrves a few points.

peaking at about 50,000 in one day recently.

when was that?

Testing in Tokyo, which has the capacity for more than 60,000, is now about 9,000 a day.

sources? we've seen only a few thousand at best

Poor Moon and his falling ratings - I truly empathize, bud! Once upon a time you and your Hangook folks and your vaunted propaganda led the world to believe that you were the "model" country in tackling this SARS-CoV-2 from China.

Little did we know that Seoul can spin up fantastic lies, but only until the lies ultimately end up spinning you! Consolation: you're doing better than Japan. I believe Taiwan betters both of you.

As for Japan, perhaps they should have a course taught in school: Radarless leadership amidst a pandemic.

As countries around the world struggle to cope with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its detrimental impact on socio-economic life, some vulnerable groups appear to be at risk of being overlooked when preventive and protective measures to fight the spread of the virus are formulated. Prisoners and inmates are one such group.

It's obvious just by the photo that he needs to go.

Japan is a very small country compared to America, but they are traveling down the same path. Deny, deny, deny until it's out of control.

Except in Japan, support doesn't matter. No matter how much Suga's "popularity" falls, the same political families will still win each election by a landslide. In the end, Japanese voters will never betray their regional political families.

All the LDP needs to do is to keep those major families happy, and they'll get another landslide victory. Suga's support can be 0% and it will make no differences in the election outcome.

You don't get to Japanese PM by pleasing the voters, you get there by pleasing the political families and factions so they support you. Voters essentially have no say on who becomes PM.

Except in Japan, support doesn't matter. No matter how much Suga's "popularity" falls, the same political families will still win each election by a landslide. In the end, Japanese voters will never betray their regional political families.

All the LDP needs to do is to keep those major families happy, and they'll get another landslide victory. Suga's support can be 0% and it will make no differences in the election outcome.

You don't get to Japanese PM by pleasing the voters, you get there by pleasing the political families and factions so they support you. Voters essentially have no say on who becomes PM.

Absolutely.

@Aly R totally agree with you on your earlier comment @7.55, I dont think the government have shown the true figures, if they did there would be such a backlash from the public over the handling of this virus, as one chap said to me " there are lie's, dam lie's and then there is statistics"

The main purpose of a lockdown is to "flatten the curve" so that the healthcare system is not overrun - and it worked splendidly for that

A lockdown is not necessarily to end the virus (although that would be a nice bonus if it happens). But we learned from past pandemics that there are typically multiple waves, so we expect multiple waves

Really the main way to end pandemics (other than everyone dying) is when finally enough people develop immunity - whether naturally or thru vaccine

@sf2k

when was that?

They've tested over 50,000 3 times in the past week.

Stop pretending as if the info isn't out there. This link has been posted a thousand times:

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

sources? we've seen only a few thousand at best

Tokyo has been testing 7,000 to 9,000 for a while. The link below is available on every daily coronavirus report JT posts. Although they should post the above link since it has the data for Japan as well as by prefecture.

https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en/