Voices
in
Japan

quote of the day

To say ‘get vaccinated’ when there are no vaccines available shows that she has no understanding of the situation at the local level.

18 Comments

A 34-year-old company employee in Kokubunji, western Tokyo, commenting on Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike's calls for young people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, which have exacerbated frustrations over the shortages of doses in the capital.

© Asahi Shimbun

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

18 Comments
Login to comment

Tokyo is a big area, some wards do still have vaccines and stock is always still coming in but slowly, it is still right to ask people to get vaccinated despite the slow restock rate.

Roll it out too fast and people will say they are testing vaccines on the population, too slowly and they say why is the roll out so slow.

There's really no winning both ways.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Sven Asai

I think you missed the point. The lady is not complaining about Koike being responsible of the vaccine unavailability but Koike claiming the lack of vaccination was related to youngster refusing to get vaccinated and not the vaccine unavailability.

If there is no brake on the car, you can not claim the driver which applied the brake for not stopping. Moreover if you are the boss from the cars company thus, if you do your job correctly, perfectly know there is no brake.

@Reckless

Japan only bought enough Moderna dose for 25millions people, if my memory serve me right. There were already in use in the JSDF vaccination center and several other big vaccination center. For some reason (some will talk about possibility to by-pass vaccination order in the aim of vaccinating olympic related people) the government decided to include companies in the process still out of the Moderna stock. Who was not able to foresaw that hoard of companies will jump in the wagon in order to be able to resume normal operation including business trip, if not the government ?

Did companies really overestimate their need or to begin with were planning to not limit vaccination to their only staff but also other people needed to insure proper operation ? For example, what is the point of vaccinating your staff, if they end up having to quarantine at some point because their unvaccinated spouse caught the virus ? Same about how are they going to operate properly if a related company supposed to provide them some material end up being closed because of covid outbreak ? Moreover just, the common belief that the government is not as efficient as company (doubt much people in Japan did not hear some Japanese at one point or another say it) thus several companies will just, if given the opportunity, take on themselves to fix a problem and start vaccinating anybody at hand so that people end up being vaccinated.

@Luddite

Fingers crossed

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Yes. My husband, who would be classed as a priority in the UK, has still not had his first vaccine. He’s going to try again tomorrow.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

It’s not true as a general or absolute statement. Although at quite a slow snail speed, the information letters are sent and vaccinations also proceed. Many criticism can be made, but everything to affix to her is also not the right way. The governor doesn’t fill mRNA up into vials, doesn’t order it for the country and doesn’t distribute it. There are so much other people involved, from fast acting professionals over bureaucratic breakers up to still completely sleeping ones. Be fair and see it more under a differentiated view.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

"This woman might also complain to her company. Many companies in Japan are vaccinating their employees, including mine, and they are actually responsible for some of the bottlenecks in supplies because they reserved so many doses."

Only companies with political leverage was able to get the vaccines for their employees. The vast majority of companies were refused, including my own, despite applying for it the first day.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Yes getting one at a company could be better, if available.

Seems that some places like Kita ward (Tokyo) are just slow or give priority to people older than 60.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Exactly. That's what many of us have been saying from day 1.

Absolutely clueless. I bet she doesn't even know how much a loaf of bread costs.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Sing it! J-govt keeps consistently dropping the ball when it comes to handling the pandemic, to the point where they've managed to push the famously patient Japanese citizens past their breaking point. You can only ask people to voluntarily comply for so long.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

I 100% agree. The media should’ve pointed out the lack of vaccines as soon as Koike made that asinine statement, but the Japanese media seem to be mostly mouthpieces for the government incapable of questioning anything they’re told.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

Say what, Yuriko?

https://twitter.com/jamesajack/status/1421100449407455232/photo/1

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Must be very localized. Went in for my second jab yesterday in Kumamoto and was done in a few minutes, just like my first.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

I wonder how she keeps getting elected

My wife pointed out that Koike is, among other things, a former newscaster and therefore understands spin and image.

I expect she knows exactly how little vaccine there is to go around in Tokyo right now, but she also knows that acknowledging that is political suicide.

With the exception of clunkers like Mori, Aso, et al., most politicians do or say nothing without having carried out an exhaustive analysis of whether or not it will benefit them.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

Excellent quote of the day!

16 ( +16 / -0 )

which have exacerbated frustrations over the shortages of doses in the capital.

Did governor really know vaccine availability in Tokyo area?

11 ( +11 / -0 )

As I have long suspected, politicians are total failures as human beings. If they were in anyway likeable or interesting, intelligent people they wouldn’t need the public to subsidise their stupidity. It’s refreshing to see that a 34 year old company employee has a better understanding of the situation and be flabbergasted enough to say, just a minute she is really stupid.

19 ( +20 / -1 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites