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Looking for a carbon-free energy source? How about tapping into the vast resources of geo thermal energy available in Japan.

Oh wait, the Onsen owners don’t want it, so let’s keep the nuclear and coal plants forever.

Okinawa numbers have already peaked and started to decline a bit. Tokyo is about 1-2 weeks behind, so expect rising numbers for 2 more weeks. I don’t think another SOE is needed if it’s starting to subside by then.

Thinking you can keep omicron from spreading is a pipe dream. Just look at China and the insane amount of measures they are enforcing, locking down millions of people, even welding their doors shut. And still, they cannot contain it.

Advance the booster shots for everyone, wear your mask and take care of yourself and the persons surrounding you. That’ll do.

Honestly, most of you seem to have no idea about the current rules. The border is open only for people who already have residence in Japan through a visa. New visas aren’t issued at all and first time entries aren’t allowed, even for people who plan on being in Japan for a long term. Some people have been waiting for almost 2 years by now, I am waiting for 10 months.

To all the foreigners posting things like there is no need to open the border: don’t forget you’ve been someone wanting to enter Japan too at some point.

Government: Let’s design a overly complicated, bureaucratic nightmare of a process that is barely understandable by anyone and discriminates many applicants.

Also the government: We are so stressed because the applications require so much work. Why are these people calling us?

You really can’t make this stuff up!

3 day quarantine is NOT applicable for students! 14 days with the possibility to shorten it to 10 days with a PCR test on the 9th day of quarantine.

Not that it matters, since 85% of valid COE holders can’t enter before January anyway. What a joke this country and its border policy has become.

That would make a great omiyage to bring home to your family and friends!

I still remember back in January and February when Germany was starting its vaccination campaign, Germans were also complaining about the initial slow speed, saying things like „at this rate it takes X years to complete“ etc. 4 months later, Germany is doing about 5-6 million shots per week and all the negative voices have become silent.

Don’t get me wrong, I think there are many things that the Japanese could improve. However, give it a little bit of time until all pieces are in their places.

I have a feeling that they’re being super arrogant on purpose, so the public opinion forces the Japanese government to cancel. Why? Well let’s see:

The Japanese government cancels the games because of the negative public opinion: IOC gets paid

The games go ahead as planned: IOC gets paid.

Either way, it’s a win for the International Organized Crime (IOC).

Well, Germany now manages to vaccinate over 1 million people per day (wednesdays only), but the average is somewhere around 750.000 shots per day. 1 million might not be impossible for Japan, but then again, it took Germany 4 months to get all processes streamlined and to reach the current pace.

Since the Olympics are largely funded by taxpayer yen, let’s see what the taxpayers get in return:

A torch relay that is closed to the public? Yes!

A great Olympic atmosphere in the host city and country: No!

Interactions with athletes and guests from all over the world: No!

Being able to watch top athletes perform at the venues: Probably not

Further straining the public funded healthcare system: Yes!

Even more debt caused by additional spread prevention measures: Yes!

Raising Japan‘s image in the rest of the world as the country that won the fight against COVID: Don’t even…

Looking at all the above, there is nothing to gain for the general public in holding the games.

„A wild, traveling citizen appears!“

“J-Gov uses „urging“ !“

“….but it failed!“

“Citizen uses „superspreader“!“

“It’s very effective!”

”J-Gov fainted!”

I don’t think she has any power or whatsoever to decide on this matter. In theory, maybe yes but in reality there are only 3 people who can cancel the Olympics: IOCs Bach, Suga and Koike.

^Correction: Indeed the tests have been reduced a bit, I only compared it to the week before.

Actually the number of tests has increased during the last week. Also new hospital admission are flattening out. You can check it yourself:

https://covid19-osaka.info/en/

It seems like at least for Osaka we have reached a plateau. The last days since 04/13 the number kept hovering around 1200 people per day. Before, it was constantly rising. Let’s see what happens next week.

To everyone living in Japan complaining about not being able to go out dining / drinking after 8 pm: Over here in Europe, restaurants and bars have been closed for nearly 7 months now. The last time I ate outside of my home was in October 2020. So please stop your crying and enjoy you bowl of Ramen before 8pm.

The only good thing about not being able to enter Japan at the moment is, that I’ll be able to get both of my Pfizer shots until the end of May over here in my home country

Agree, it seems like they’re building up a supply to ramp up the number of vaccinations per day from after GW is over. Also, I think they are lacking the 6 shot syringes as of now, so inoculating with the 5 shot syringe would mean wasting precious doses. It makes sense, but then again, they could have figured all of this out 2 months earlier like the US and EU did.

While I support his point of view, this could also be an attempt to get himself in position to become the next prime minister during the next election in September. The popular opinion is that the olympics should be cancelled and he is currently the LDP no. 2....go figure....

Before the arrival of the new variants, Japan got away with just asking bars and restaurants to close at 8pm along with „optimizing“ the test strategy.

With the arrival and rapid spreading of the new variants, these measures just don’t cut it anymore. I wonder how long it takes the politicians to realize this. Osaka’s governor seems to have understood it already.

If the olympics were cancelled 3 months ago, we would now have a full on state of emergency including closures of bars, restaurant and other places were people gather.

So Koike is looking forward to welcoming 100000 people for the olympics that no one wants.

Meanwhile, 1000s of international students with CoEs in hand are waiting outside of Japan while their life is on hold, attending online classes at 1am. This is just so unfair. I wish these damn olympics were getting canceled. The athletes will be gone 2 weeks later, while many students plan to make Japan their permanent home after finishing their studies.