Members of media from abroad covering Olympics to be tracked by GPS

great, don't let them out of sight, you never know what will happen

Big brother is watching you..,

It is impossible to track and watch the movements of 93,490 people.

To do that work they have to hire another thousand people who will do that job.

I feel this has nothing to do with COVID tracking, it's all about keeping the Media on a leash just like the LOCAL ones.

Members of media from abroad covering Olympics to be tracked by GPS

In simple words, a phone app.

Leave the phone at the hotel and there you go...

Just another “half-measure” to boost confidence/brain wash the japanese people regarding the Olympics to be a “safe event”, with “no risk”.

Members of media from abroad covering Olympics to be tracked by GPS

What that will be? Ankle monitor bracelet for media? Even Ghosn doesn't need to use while he was on bail.

‘Japan’s media’ will continue their recent campaign to manipulate the numbers and try to change perceptions of Japan’s ‘public opinions’. However, ‘Foreign correspondents’ can’t be trusted to ‘tow the line’.

Journalists are going to love this. A foretaste of the next Games in China.

More ‘broad’ policies with ambiguous rules about who, what, when, where, how & why.

> - “If any violations are found, measures such as suspension or deprivation of accreditation and deportation proceedings will be strictly applied,” -

Does seem an overly focused action on foreign media. The powers that be might just have realised they are in for a world of trouble having actual journalism snooping around for stories.

How bizarre that they are focusing on international media with these ridiculous measures that will fail. I’m not duped.

The disapproval numbers are being says reduced from 80% last week to:

“A poll by broadcaster TBS this week showed 55% wanted the Games either postponed or cancelled -

and the now claiming disapproval was as [65 %] last month

-“down 10 points from last month.”-

It's not as if any journos have two phones, is it?

Once again half measures that only apply to some people but are supposed to guarantee safety for the tens of thousands attending. How has this system worked for the people that enter the country even now? how are they going to control by GPS the contact the media will have with people commuting from their homes daily in Tokyo?

What difference does it make, only 10% of japans population is vaccinated may be by the time the GAIJUNS arrive 12 or 13 % will be, several strains of COVID are jumping around already, and for sure the Olympics will make it even worse, and that is a FACT.

If foreign media needs to be tracked by gps, isn’t that a sign that the Olympics shouldn’t be held, period?

The sad thing is that the majority of Japanese believe this rubbish. And it’s all leading up to the inevitable blame being put on foreigners when it explodes after the Japan Games, when that does happen they can now say “we did everything we could!”

Foreign vaccinated and twice-tested journalists are tracked by GPS while Japanese mostly unvaccinated and untested journalists are free to come and go as they please.

This is the dangerous type-of-thinking that has lead Japan to a fourth wave of infections and is probaby gonna lead to a fifth wave right when the paralympic games are about to start.

Let's hope they have a better app than COCOA, that thing failed completely.

others (14,500).

Inquiring minds would like to know who these others are.

Disgusting, I hope the media write negatively about this.

All of the people coming into Japan for the olympics, athletes, trainers, media etc. should be subject to the exact same entry restrictions and border control measures just like returning Japanese and visa holding foreigners. If I have to quarantine for 14 days and install three apps on my phone, sign a pledge and put up with all the other ridiculous inconvenience at the airport then so should everyone else. I have been fully vaccinated (Japan does not recognize this nor care), tested twice, but still stuck at home. How hypocritical it would be to change the rules for the people coming in for the olympics.

It’s instructive that they feel the need to impose all these restrictions. It’s almost as if there were a pandemic going on or something.

(While I have the floor, I just have to give a virtual fist bump to Alfie for his avatar. ”Peter, you’ve lost the news!”)

"He did not clarify if the strict tracking will apply to tens of thousands of others who will enter Japan for the Olympics and Paralympics, including IOC officials, officials of national Olympic committees and sports federations, broadcasters, and others arriving to work as contractors at the games."

You mean: no journalist asked that simple question??? Was it during a press conference?

Does anybody seriously think that the gutter press and paparazzi will allow their movement to be limited? Those guys are hardwired to chase a story, and a paycheck, and damn the consequences for everybody else. I'm predicting allowing such people in from all over the planet is going to be a recipe for disaster.

What about the members of the IOC

Well, we can't let anything like the truth get out now can we?

Ah, who am I kidding, the media never reports the truth lol.

Does anybody seriously think that the gutter press and paparazzi will allow their movement to be limited? Those guys are hardwired to chase a story, and a paycheck, and damn the consequences for everybody else. I'm predicting allowing such people in from all over the planet is going to be a recipe for disaster.

”But they will sign a pledge to be good!” said an Olympic official, “and as the Olympics are a celebration of integrity, nobody would break a pledge during an Olympic Games. What? Ben Johnson? There was never such an athlete in Olympic history”.

Tracking all movements of foreign journalists. Sounds familiar, but not from the context of a democratically run country.

Seemed to work well with the 300 people a day they said went missing after breaking quarantine a few months ago. I’m sure they all got deported and fined accordingly! Or the shoppers showing up at Duty Free counters lately buying goods clearly not quarantining! Sure 94,000 people will all abide the rules because Japan has really shown how strict they can be if you don’t! Give me a break.

He said reporters' phones could be tracked with GPS to see if rules had been broken.

Will they be tracking multiple phones of each reporter, or just one designated one?

How about tablets?

It doesn’t take a genius to work out you could just leave your tracked phone in the hotel and venture out with a second phone, a tablet, or just a notepad, pen and voice recorder.

These are reporters for goodness sake, and reporters from countries that actually have a vibrant investigative media. Is Japan so naive to understand that journalists from overseas are actually journalists in the real sense of the word and not just puppets of the state?

A phone app or ankle monitor? Bring two phones, one decoy and one legit phone. Sign a pledge? Will you accept digital signature? No? Only hard copy wet ink? Sorry, my lawyer said I don't have to sign this under duress. The idiocy of these folks...

I can already see the headlines 6 months from now "Government reveals the GPS tracking system for the olympics never worked at all and explains the sudden spike of cases that began during the games"

It's sounds like the same system they use when you enter the country, same I went through and anyone else (Japanese or foreigner) for the past 3-4 months. It's kind of like the "honor system". Unfortunately as someone stated before, you could always leave your phone in the hotel room and just go out. They do send you daily reminders though to "Check In" with the App and sometimes more than once a day, but still, it's going to be tough monitoring all these people. Will there be a medal count for which country's media gets caught the most breaking the rules? Best of luck all I can say.

Toshiro Muto, the CEO of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, said Tuesday that media personnel entering Japan from abroad could be monitored by GPS to make sure they follow the rules that will be spelled out in the third edition of the so-called Playbooks due out later this month.

Muto said media would be tested twice before they left home, and for several days after they enter Japan. He said they would have to sign a “pledge” to follow the rules, and would be restricted from free movement for the first 14 days.

For all the folks thinking whether this is legal or if the COCOA app will work or the fact that media folks can have two mob tel handset etc.... -- the first two paragraphs are revealing

Read the fine print - Muto is not saying media will be monitored by GPS - what he says (at least as per this report) - "from abroad COULD be monitored by GPS"

Now I am not an English major but I think there is a difference between "Would" and "Could" - I think this is classic Japanese way to keep things aimai and ambiguous - so that when the shxt hits the fan no one person can be blamed....

Second paragraph - these jokers expect foreigners to stick to their "pledge" they sign - even during first 14 days we will see many defaulters - expect cases to rise (if reported...)

Lastly these are the media folks who will come for main Olympic event starting 23 Jul and stay till end of Paralympics in Sept month - there is more than two weeks gap between the two events - what do you think these folks are going to be doing during this period? Sit in their hotel room, inside the hot air bubble, adhere to their pledge or roam all around Japan and spread the virus??????

Everyday morning is a clusterfxxk news from these pathetic folks planning and running the show - I look forward to the day when these depressing shix games are over - no denial the positive cases and deaths will increase - but on a positive note hopefully we will not see such inaptitude and such depressing news in the morning (needless to say the IOC/JOC folks will for sure deny that Olympics had anything with the rise in numbers and continue to be far removed from ground reality to boast how they delivered "safe & secure" games......)

Some dudeToday 07:44 am JST

It’s instructive that they feel the need to impose all these restrictions. It’s almost as if there were a pandemic going on or something.

(While I have the floor, I just have to give a virtual fist bump to Alfie for his avatar. ”Peter, you’ve lost the news!”)

Still funny 27 years later. "Peter, you're lying in a news grave. Do you know what's written on your headstone?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnS07NS8110

Oooh, another failed phone app? More IT calamity? Please keep the useless garbage coming Japan!

This is a violation of basic human rights that allows free movement.

This is to reassure the public, no more than that.

no gps tracking will be in place

Actually, Tokyo 2020 people have said before, as has Suga, that journalists who break the quarantine rules would have their coverage accreditation taken, and could be deported. Again, this may all just be talk, but.

Chinese government: Damn, why didn't we think of that?

Meanwhile, members of the media in Japan will spend the 14 days prior to covering the Games riding in packed trains, going to their crowded offices, going out drinking with colleagues.

Welcome to China -- I mean, JAPAN! Now, this is my home... do come in! It's so lovely to have you. Now, close the door behind you and lock it, and please do not leave this entryway for any reason.

Motenasu at its best... all just lip-service and a show. Guaranteed they'll let Japanese media who have been abroad back in with zero restrictions.

Let's all try something.

Ok here I am on the 1st floor of my tiny house in Tokyo no major apartment buildings nearby, only similar side/type of house.

My house is a wood frame building with the typical cement composite siding ( basically big versions of Hardie board).

Now I turn on my GPS and attempt to get my location, oops nothing! Ok may it is my phone, now let's try my son's iPhone, still nothing, the phone and satellites cannot connect.

This is not unusual in Tokyo and especially in the metro, major buildings, malls, etc..

So if they are staying in any major concrete building their GPS has a good chance it will not connect and major gaps in location will be happening daily if not hourly or more.

Try it.

Yet, You may have something there @Mark 7:29am, that would ‘appeal to many’:

*- “only 10% of jJapan’s pop. is vaccinated...by the time the GAIJUNS arrive 12-13 %...” -*

“G*aijUn”?: Are ‘they’ a new ‘variant’ or ‘strain’ of “foreigners*”? Perhaps they would be more ‘obedient, docile, naive, easily deceived”? That ‘taipu’ would be more broadly accepted by the govt as visiting media?

Goood,

no fun for you

Why not just check to see if they have been fully vaccinated with a reliable vaccine? For that matter, why not require that everyone entering the country show proof that they are fully vaccinated by a vaccine that works?

Is there anyone who isn't tracked already for 14 days from entering Japan?

I don't think officials in Japan know that vaccines work. Journalists are not going to let themselves be tracked. The tracking of journalists will become the story and the Olympics won't get covered.

This is a violation of basic human rights that allows free movement.

When has that mattered anywhere during the pandemic. Governments and administrations declare an emergency then do what they want.

Just window dressing from J gov. As usual

The average monthly number of passengers coming (back) to Japan from abroad since January 2021 has been around 100,000 in Narita only:

https://www.naa.jp/en/airport/pdf/statistics20210527.pdf

There is absolutely no possible statistical correlation, even less causation, between these current 100,000 monthly arrivals and the COVD19 situation in Japan, where the virus is present and spreading since the very beginning and wildly under tested.

I have experienced myself the process, and when I went out on my 15th day since coming home in Japan, having been tested negative 7 times in the previous 20 days in which I had only been in contact with a handful of people - all vaccinated - I was the one scared of taking the train.

Thinking that the 100,000 people coming for the Olympics, tested multiple times and mostly vaccinated, will be adding any significant problem to the COVID situation in Japan where the virus has been circulating everywhere and continuously in the last year despite the border shutdown, from Hokkaido to Okinawa, among 125 million people living and working almost as usual, is surreal.

But I do believe that Japan can overcome the Olympics challenge and keep the numbers low by continuing making the best use of the COVID testing technology: close to none.

Phone apps track phones not people. They tell you where the person's phone or one of his phones is. Will no one ask a friend to look after his phone?

Alfie, I imagine that O'Hanraha-hanrahan would fit very comfortably into the kisha club, which is constantly losing the news.

They should buy everyone apple airtags.

Let me get this clear. They keep telling that Olympics can be held safely, but they STILL did not get how to do it?! This is utter incompetence. Also it is a huge gamble with people’s lives. This is not a student group project which can be done in last minutes, this is something that was supposed to be done months ago with documentation available for the public. Just cancel the damn thing.

So the covid vaccine has a 5g chip in it after all!

AscissorToday  11:10 am JST

Alfie, I imagine that O'Hanraha-hanrahan would fit very comfortably into the kisha club, which is constantly losing the news.

”Alright, so what’s the Japanese for “we don’t care about our people?”

”Boku…ノーケア…”

Yeah, that'll work!

there are already thousands of Meeja people here (as per an earlier post of mine, some weeks ago).... even out here in deepest Chiba-ken I run into them... also, people who are here to prepare (in this case, the surfing spot up the coast from me). and where am I meeting these people who are based in Kazusa Ichinomiya, and Tỏkyō????? in sleepy Onjuku. glad I'm not in the metropolis.

What’s deeply troubling is that the Olympic Committee is currently trying to save costs. They were told in the report in the NEJM criticizing their prevention methods to use wearable devices to track athletes but they instead opted for the phone tracker (which has proven to be useless) because it’s cheaper.

An insider told me that overtime is banned for the crews setting up the venues because they can’t afford the overtime and electricity costs in the evening.

We should ask the IOC if they are COVID conspiracy theorists because that’s how they are behaving.

AG

Members of media from abroad covering Olympics to be tracked by GPS

In simple words, a phone app.

Leave the phone at the hotel and there you go...

Except these days, nobody ever separates from their smartphone.

They've been insinuating this for months now.

How they need to track foreign journalists as they will be likely spreaders.

Soft propaganda on NHK every night.

So I guess a lot of people will be without their cell phones while in Japan.

I wonder if this gps system is an additional cost on top of the already excessively expensive app that is suppose to be developed.

Guess there's going to be a lot of people walking around without their cell phones.

I am calling it!!

Tatemae BS!!

This is just for appearances, even if they do track it will be minimal & they wont do anything

I would LOVE to be proved WRONG on this however!!!

I was just thinking, that if every Jerno had a second phone with this tracking app, oh what fun it would be if they ALL turned there second phones off, what panic and mayhem it would cause, and who the heck is going to monitor these phones? is it a bluff? you could have a second phone and just leave it at the hotel where they are staying, and no one would know, the whole concept of this app is floored from day one, and the regulations is not accross the board, every person should be tracked not just a few. it seems a half bake idea thats floored from day one. but the people who come up with the concept are deluded that its going to be a perfect solution, all its done is made Japan look silly.

Thus Creating an underground black market for burner phones for journalist. Sounds like movie.

I look forward to my next family trip to Japan where they try to make me download some app on my phone or carry some burner phone from the airport. Watch how well I comply with that one and stay in my little quarantine. Good luck with that.

Covid has given the japanese government it chance to show its real authoritarian head. The only thing that held back the japanese government from becoming a tyrrany is the constitution implemented after the war. The government here would snap right back to an even worst tyrrany than china if it ever gets it's chance.

media personnel entering Japan from abroad could be monitored by GPS

Keyword, COULD..NOT WILL BE.

What’s deeply troubling is that the Olympic Committee is currently trying to save costs. They were told in the report in the NEJM criticizing their prevention methods to use wearable devices to track athletes but they instead opted for the phone tracker (which has proven to be useless) because it’s cheaper.

The app is still under development and cost 7.3 billion yen, it will be put into service without any trial to fix bugs and as with the cocoa app, I don't expect it to function. Just our taxes thrown away again to some connected company.

I smell a scapegoat coming...

Members of media from abroad covering Olympics to be tracked by GPS

This is just pandering to the general Japanese public. There was a recent poll

and 65 percent responded that measures against foreigners coming in for the

olympic wasn't strict enough.

Well it all goes to show the vast majority of the public with the help of the J-media

believe in the daily low numbers and despite the low vaccine rollout in Japan and

the fact that most of the people coming in are vaccinated, the public still view the

incoming foreigners as an infection risk. Just look at how the Aussie Softball team presently

in Gunma are being treated or viewed.

Just get a second phone and leave one at your hotel. I wonder how no journalist has ever asked these so- called officials about such a possibility

Why even allow them into the country? Just issue officially sanctioned statements and allow foreign media to attach their own by-line to it. That way everyone will be marching lockstep to the same drummer, and no nails will be sticking up and in need of hammering down.

Can the Government find some way to attach powerful magnets to journo's that link to metal structures over the city ?

Really, the non use of compliance devices like magnets is a concern to me and others .

I hope this GPS tracker is chained around their necks. Otherwise it is totally useless!

A Journalist that agrees to being tracked while in Japan is not someone, I would call a journalist.

Probably Media people form some Dictator states can agree to that, they are used to it anyway.

I still think only 100% vaccinated people should be allowed

It was a British reporter from Reuters who spread a mutated strain of coronavirus to Japan last December.

Instead of responding to a request to stay home for two weeks, the reporter attended a party and infected partygoers with the virus.

This issue was reported by a famous Japanese weekly magazine, but the foreign media, including Reuters, never reported it and covered it up.

It was a British reporter from Reuters who spread a mutated strain of coronavirus to Japan last December.

I trust the foreign media more than the Japanese press. There was very little mention by the Japanese press of the Japanese variant.

And can we get one thing straight. A Japanese returning from UK spread the variant to his friends who passed it onto others all because he thought he had the right to break quarantine rules and decided to go out dining.

After all, the foreign media didn't seem to report it at all.

The Japanese weekly also interviewed Reuters and a British reporter directly.

The British reporter and Reuters acknowledged the article as true, and Reuters replied that they had fired the reporter.