Freedom comments

The reason for the case drops is a combination of the vaccines working and herd immunity. (Pickle pretty much sums it up) This is precisely why Japan is only experiencing such high numbers now because they did so much better than the rest of the world so it hadn't swept through the population like the latest variant did. It also explains why other countries who had contained the virus early had such bad outbreaks when they finally relaxed things like Australia and NZ.

@design-monkey

Miyagi, Ibaraki, Tottori and Saga

@John Fairly sure only 4 prefectures decided to reduce reporting and that didn't include Tokyo, so no reason for the numbers for Tokyo will be counted any differently than before. Although I guess it may cause a small dip in the national figures although doubt it will be more than 10%.

Ultimately pointless getting unhappy until we know the details. The article on Japan Times mentions travel agencies or sponsors who need to be available if a tourist gets covid so may be as simple as getting someone in Japan to do this for you. Hopefully we will know more early next week.

@design-monkey

Height of previous wave severe hospitalisations in Japan were in excess of 1200. The highest daily deaths during that wave was around 300 and as already pointed out by every one on here many times over the 1.8m is ther active cases not hospitalisations.

Serious numbers and deaths always lag a couple of weeks behind the numbers which is why they didn't initially go up as much as the numbers. The positive news about this wave is despite the much higher numbers the number of serious cases in Japan didn't hit 50% of what it did the previous wave and the deaths aren't significantly higher than before which is positive in the long run.

Painkiller you will see from some of the other sites that the government is looking at scraping pre-departure tests and increasing the cap even further from next month, so no matter how much you keep talking about a lockdown it is never going to happen.

I know I was providing information LOL. I even added it is too early to be sure. Maybe they're partisan JT followers who don't like to hear news from other publications.

@Wobot

Japan News reported it down 751 cases from this time last week and 2nd day in a row with a decrease so whilst it is probably a little early to be sure but it seems to have plateaued and starting to trend downwards.

@painkiller

I think it is clear they have a different approach than last time and are correctly riding this wave out. That is the plan and I am glad they are following it. It is already starting to plateau and will do so in the next week or so.

rzadig has hit is squarely on the head. Deaths per capita remain at some of the lowest in the world. Ultimately the vaccines are doing their job as intended. Their main purposes is to prevent deaths not infections. I am probably going to upset both extreme ends of the specturum here but whilst I fully belive you should absolutely get vaccinated, you should certainly be living your life as normal at this point. Covid is here to stay for the next several years and you just have to get used to it. Staying locked up at home is just as bad as going into a crowded train in the middle of rush hour. There is middle ground. Follow the rules but don't be stupid and wear masks outside in this heat as you're adding to the problem for the already overworked hospitals when you get heatstroke. The government is aware that there is no need to panic since they've said they won't be adding extra restrictions and in fact I suspect the borders will be fully open by September at the latest. Opening them now for tourists won't make a slightest bit of difference to the numbers as at this moment those in Japan are far more likely to infect them than the other way around.

Only 252 tourists entered Japan in June, so it is very much those in Japan driving this so can we please open the borders fully now please when it is clear it won't make a difference in infection numbers. These numbers were always on the cards but as others have said with everyone being able to access the vaccines (and those that choose not to have only themselves to blame) the numbers don't matter with the amount of the overall population that has been vaccinated.

Covid is never going to go away. Instead of constantly being concerned by numbers whether it is up or down, time to move on with our lives. If you want to a wear a mask and avoid crowded spaces than that is your decision but you shouldn't force others to do so where the government does not. I am glad they haven't imposed any additional restrictions. Hopefully full opening of borders will follow since it is not going to make the slightest bit of difference in numbers at this point.

No amount of lockdowns, masks, border controls etc will stop this virus or at least not to any measurable length. Time for Japan to syncronise with the rest of the world.

@Ian

Sorry I meant "You just have to live with the virus the best way you can with the same level of restrictions that were in place before the virus existed"

The harsh reality is this is going to happen every few months. New variants will come and go and case numbers will rise and fall. You just have to live with the virus the best way you can.