Gaijinshogun comments

A positive step to automation, given Japan’s declining birth rate. I’m working on a prototype automated salaryman that will robotically commute to work on the train just to speed up efficiency even further

If I remember correctly, last year Thailand floated the idea of travellers being allowed into the country if they were in fixed tour groups that only went to certain places at certain times etc. Needless to say, the plan was a non starter and nobody bothered with it and the plan was scrapped. Even now with tourists allowed free entry back in the recovery is slow, particularly given China is on perpetual lockdown.

Furthermore the insinuation is once again that tourists will somehow spread covid whereas Japanese citizens can come back home and do what they want and it’s not as much of a risk. But I’m never surprised these days sigh…

I saw an interview with some souvenir shop owners on TV stating they have lost 70% of their business due to lack of foreign visitors, even with an increase in domestic travellers over the golden week. With each day that the country keeps the covid doors locked, the country is just sliding further and further into irrelevance.

They would say that though, wouldn’t they? Lol

You can hardly blame them. In a country where you’re expected to commute to work, grind it out for insane hours every day and then go home exhausted, having a few drinks to let go is one of the few ways you can release a bit of stress.

During the first state of emergency, there was a sense of purpose so people took closures in their stride. But after a year of dithering and a complete lack of action by the government in testing people and vaccinations, this is one form of protest. Many businesses near me are also openly ignoring these directives and staying open at night. Looks like the government is losing control.

No rush...just take your time.

No doubt that Japan has screwed up badly. However, it’s not just a question of speed or efficiency. The ignorance over what a vaccine even does is astounding. A medical worker friend of mine was recently vaccinated here and she was constantly complaining to me about how scary vaccines are and that she heard they regularly kill people. If someone who is supposed to know is that uninformed, consider how bad most layman are.

The central authorities need to educate and make a case to the whole country on what vaccination will achieve and how it will allow the economy to move forward and life to return to some semblance of normality.

Let me take a guess, no efforts to actually force companies to have their employees work from home? No widespread increase of free and accessible testing to ascertain the extent of the problem? No training of medics or volunteers who would be able to staff mass vaccination centres? No closure of schools and assistance with implementing online learning systems?

Or will it be just close restaurants with more urging and requesting? You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to see what this will entail.

Great Idea! I think the UK is ideally placed to make some great deals trading in Asia. Perhaps we can use our brand new Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier to tow the British isles over towards Australia or park it off the coast of SIngapore.

Only natural to see they have run afowl of the agriculture ministry. I doubt the fine they face will be a poultry amount either. Now with the possibility of another avian flu, it’s a race against the cluck to stop the spread.

I feel sorry for the girl to have to see that. She must be on a streak of bad luck

Mock vaccination...perhaps this is to follow on from mock testing, mock viral tracing and mock hospitalisation. The Japanese government, with only 1500 tests in Tokyo yesterday has failed to carry out any of the above comprehensively so this is a logical next step.

I think a certain lord of the sit ups needs to draft a mock resignation letter.

It seems like the Japanese government had no plan to conclusively deal with coronavirus until last week. Someone maybe mentioned the word ワクチン in a meeting with the word olympics and then everyone started parroting it.

The problem is that no infrastructure is in place to distribute and administer this vaccine. The government has been disgracefully sluggish and should be looking to train volunteers to administer the vaccine and starting to reach out to people to get organised.

Some progress at least. The next challenge will be getting people to take it. A couple of foreigners I know and some Japanese colleagues said they won’t take it because it’s rushed and they don’t trust vaccines because of some things that happened in the 1990s. Meanwhile we continue to be forced to attend the office every day. One guy even said “does it even work?”. A little education on public health would go a long way at this point

I guess Covid-19 will have to sleep over at a manga cafe or karaoke room for the night.

It’s a good job that the vaccine isn’t a prerequisite for the olympics. Because it won’t be ready in time.

A corporate sock puppet and a broken record...

The Japanese State of Nothing is having the intended effect then. No enforcement, no compensation for any other business other than restaurants and bars, no real help or push to get businesses to work online and schools continue in full classrooms.

In any case, the proof is in the pudding. If the number of daily cases explode beyond 10,000 and keep rising, then it's back to the meeting room for the king of sit-ups.

I think cancelling the olympics is a foregone conclusion at this point. Unfortunately Suga and his friends are sitting in a soundproof room like George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor Soldier Spy ignoring the chorus of disapproval.

Most likely he will act at the last moment, when he can pivot and put the blame on the athletes not coming or basically anyone else.

So Suga, resembling some sort of haunted, sweating balloon-like apparition, goes on live TV and tells us that asking restaurants to close at 8pm will cut it.

No directions to comprehensively close offices and enforce online work. No directions to close schools. No penalties for non compliance. No compensation for the millions who will lose income or possibly be out of work.

I think he needs to resign and then he can spend the rest of his time doing sit ups.

Encourage, ask, request...basically nothing changes then. Where will the government be in 2 weeks as the numbers keep spiking?

How many levels of alert are there? Is there actually one that means the Japanese government will have to stop kicking the can down the road and actually take action? Or just keep everything open as usual, schools, offices etc etc

When you have teachers are this incompetent, urine trouble!

i think the government is going to start a Go To cinema campaign with Russell Crowe as the figurehead called “Are you not entertained?!”

He needs to work on touching up his public image

It’s 35 degrees outside, take a walk around and count how many women aren’t wearing frumpy, baggy jeans. And people wonder why nobody is dating anymore