ian comments

Anyway, i for one, would like to know of any country that has emulated or followed South Korea's approach as many people here seem to want Japan to do so, even if it's probably not possible.

But the low number of testing was intentional. it waspolicy. and now they are saying they are making changes to the policy.

Apparently, there are legal barriers that prohibits distilleries from making sanitizers. Not to mention that it would be very costly.

https://tokyo-craftliqueur.amebaownd.com/posts/7997435

kohakuebisu

There is a WHO recipe for hand santizer. It uses isopropyl alcohol, available right now at a normal price on Amazon Japan, gylcerine (a moisturizer, so easily substituted), 3% peroxide for extra hygiene, and boiled water.

This is what I'm using now

Japan had the virus earlier than most countries but has nowhere near the numbers of severely ill and deaths of other countries. Yet for most people it seems, Japan and the Japanese are the ones doing it wrong.

i'm with you on the mask though, been explaining that to people for as long as i can remember, some of the most active posters here just flat out reject it, the simple explanation simply beyond their understanding.

So why would the governments want to act faster against their own interests.

the longer this goes the deeper the economy sinks. losses and bailouts will run into billions, even trillions of dollars, you think they can get it back by saving on paying a few thousand pensioners?

Commendable.

Uber isn't being targeted for being a foreign company. It's being "targeted" because the union represents uber workers

I guess the union reps must be paying themselves hazard pay for rendering essential services at this time

Good to see something about the positive side of things.

If the government did listen to the call for a lockdown, a real lockdown, and implemented it, lets say, a month ago. Would you say that Japan would have been better for it at this point in time?

Very dramatic results

Seems to be the same thing

@Kostas Yannakopoulos

Slight misunderstanding, that package is the guarantee to individuals and businesses, what isreferred by the "govt doesn't have that guarantee" is the govt's own source of revenue, hence the allusion to printing money as a source

Everything would be so easy if everyone has a fat bank account and all means of production are totally automated.

Why are people so blind to what happens to the economy during a total lockdown?

If the government cannot bail out individuals and businesses economic collapse will lead to hardships and deaths too.

And if the economy is already down and another catastrophe occurs, what then?

We should not make short sighted decisions, especially in crises.

On a personal level we don't impose our own lockdown. Despite the danger to our health and lives we still choose to go to work. We will only stop going to work if our pay will be guaranteed. The government does not and cannot have that guarantee. Despite the pronouncements of some, the government cannot just print money as needs arise.

Yes thank you for reminding people that. Although Hokkaido is of course different from the other cities, it still showed the limited lockdown has worked

Number of positives/number of tests might be confusing as any one person can be tested multiple times

A complete lockdown will go a long way in shutting down the spread of the virus, yes, it's common knowledge.

But do you know what else a lockdown will shutdown?

The question is how are they different that the number of fatalities are so low? What are they doing differently?

To find the answer you must tackle the question head on, not deny it.

Even with Japan's incredibly (in the true sense of the word) low numbers, +/- 2% of COVID-19 cases are reported to be fatal.

So if the actual number of cases are much higher, for example 10x (as i always see this number mentioned), then fatalities would be much lower, in the example +/- 0.2 %

Japan is different from other countries.

Every country is different from other countries.

If the aforementioned mathematical forecast was of any accuracy at all then we should be saying Tokyo was the first New York, not Tokyo will be the next New York.

And yes we can consider the case of Japan special, certainly not ordinary. Despite getting the virus earlier than many countries, the spread is still not of catastrophic proportions like in many countries. No matter how we look at it, the numbers are relatively far lower.

The infection will spread whether the Olympics was cancelled or not.

I prefer the state of emergency here in Japan rather than the lockdowns in other countries. If I'm in another country like my home country, I would prefer a strict lockdown.

Just one of the reasons why a lockdown should be carefully considered.

If they can print unlimited money they don't have to borrow.

Again, and still many people seem to not willing to understand it. Flu is not comparable with Covid-19 with the exception of some symptoms.

Everything can be compared, that's how you get context. In this case they are being compared as to how deadly they are. If the flu is deadlier or even just equally deadly then Burning Bush is correct in saying that the same measures should be implemented.

If you do not understand it doesn't mean the others do also.

No, because the coronavirus is unlike the infectious diseases we see every winter because we do not have a vaccine.

Unfortunately despite the vaccine, flu still has killed more people. The difference is people fear the new and the unknown. If there's no pressure to Abe to do this he won't, especially since Japan is in a lot less worse condition than many countries.