mountaingrill comments

I am absolutely disgusted and very angry with this behavior. Utterly reprehensible. It will take a long time for Japan to recover its image after this Olympics debacle

The difference is because Osaka finished their SOE 2 weeks earlier than Tokyo. Tokyo will catch up in 2 weeks.

I hope these protestors are treated better than those in the UK. The images of the police dragging women away from the vigil were truly disturbing. Power to these ladies.

Hanami season is fast approaching along with universities going back at the beginning of April. It seems most universities have opted for face-to-face classes this upcoming semester; or at least partial face-to-face. Students will be moving around the country to their university towns. I wonder if we'll see a spike of cases around the end of April or going into Golden Week, and maybe a return to SOE or similar? It must be quite stressful for the first-year university students, or any university students for that matter.

Or am I missing something?

The Murdoch oligarchy is feeling pressure and looking for ways to make money. These are the death throws of a dying industry.

Blaming the Prime Minister is very easy to do - as a whinging pom myself it comes as second nature. However, compared to the Japanese government the UK has been positively proactive with the handling of this pandemic. Us Brits need to stop whinging and realize not everything is the government's fault.

Well at least the UK is actually taking action: A tiered lockdown system and the first country to start vaccinating. The bumbling Japanese government is risking people's lives by not testing and delaying the vaccination program until March next year. What's more, it is believed the general public may not have access to the vaccine until 2022.

Make hard noise preventively. If attacked, just leave your food and pretend to lie dead. Done.

Absolutely do NOT play dead with black bears. Make noise as you walk so the bears know you are there. The bell is so that you don't startle them. But any noise will warn them of your approach. Black bears particularly dislike the sound of metal. So clanging pots and pans works well, or banging your hiking poles on rocks.

If you do meet a bear walk away slowly. If possible try to keep facing them. They are curious and will want to check your bag for food. But they will only attack if you run. Stand tall and make yourself look as big as possible. They are likely to be as frightened as you and will attack when startled. If they start to come at you aggressively raise your arms and shout loudly and aggressively back. Never run or play dead.

I went on a few hikes this summer and it was very quiet out. Many of the huts were closed due to the virus and shuttle bus services were also suspended. This meant that if you wanted to hike those trails you needed both a car and a tent. However, some areas don't allow access to private cars. There were heavy rains just before the climbing season which washed away a lot of paths. And even some small earthquakes in places which made everything very unstable. Central and minami alps routes were all but closed. I have never seen the place so quiet. However, the few people who were out were friendly and looking out for each other which made for a nice atmosphere.

I have just been out near my house in Kyoto and there are a lot of people around this weekend. Much more than there were over Obon. Also there seem to be foreign tourists, or at least people that are looking and behaving very much like foreign tourists. I didn't think any were currently allowed in? I was also subject to a few more snide comments than usual - I detect a little aniti-foreignerism at the moment....

Professional athletes have worked long and hard to get where they are. Like actors and musicians their popularity gives them a certain amount of political clout. It would be nice if we all lived in fair and just societies. However, certain groups continue to suffer due to ignorance. Athletes are individuals with their own views and opinions. Personally I don't see any wrong if they want to use their power to raise awareness of these issues ad do some good in the world.

Everything TokyoJoe said!

The four day rule and the lack of testing mean that the actual number of cases is without doubt much higher. However, although the cases maybe higher, it still appears that symptoms are not as extreme as places such as Europe, US and now Brazil.

With the death rate its not just Japan that has dodged the bullet, most East Asian and South East Asian countries all show a low number of cases and low percentage of deaths. Including China considering the size of the population. Something is different, but there must be more at play here than just wearing masks, not hugging and taking your shoes off.

It has been said that there may be a natural immunity to corona virus in this part of the world because corona virus usually originate in China. There may be something to this. Whats more, there appears to be a strong correlation with between death rates and obesity.

Japan has been very quick to claim its low rates are the result of its Japanese behavior. This is arrogant and small minded, and implies that ultimately people are responsible for their sickness and death from this virus.

Trump is a symbol of everything that is wrong with America and everything that is wrong with humanity.

The Japanese have a very unforgiving nature. Once you do something here you are tarred with that brush for ever. If you come into work late once you become the person who always comes late to work. Bully here seems to be partly based on this strange mindset, and it makes group opinion seem so stifling and unchangeable. Kimura was angry once on a show and the crowd would have never let her forget it. Similar to Becky and Laura you do something once and there is very little change of coming back from it.

Its going to be difficult if not impossible to change the bullying culture in Japan because of the closed minded, unforgiving group mentality.

South Korea has done a good job of tackling this disease so far. Their response was quicker than many countries and they rank 6th when it comes to testing per head of population. However, I am surprised that nightclubs have been aloud to open so quickly. I know they have been easing restrictions over the last couple of weeks, but nightclubs must be one of the worst places for spreading the virus. Cramped, airless places with people talking loudly to each other in close proximity..haven't we learned anything yet?

Unfortunately, next year is still likely to be too early for both large scale international travel and large gatherings of people. Either the Olypmics will have to be held in a reduced form, or delayed until 2022. However, the winter Olympics and commonwealth games are also scheduled for that year. Interest in the games is at an all time low. They are not likely to be the greatest ever - far from it.

Herd immunity can't happen without a vaccine. For Covid 19 it is reported that somewhere around 70% of the population needs to have been infected and recovered from the virus to create herd immunity. In the US at the moment less than 1% have been infected and this has resulted in more than 60,000 deaths. A 70% infection rate would be catastrophic. The only way forward is with a vaccine.

A recent survey by a university where I work in Japan found that less than 50% of the students had their own PCs. This was across all student years. However, they all had smartphones. Since the cost of PCs is relatively low (from20,000yen) I suspect its probably more about personal choice. Monthly wifi costs are more likely to be problematic for students living away from home.

Sorry to here about the death of this young lady. The rocks in the bag are quite small. I suspect they were to weigh down the bag only. Perhaps she had gone to the rive to dispose of the money for some reason, but slipped and fallen in herself. The rivers have been swollen durring the last couple of days due to the recent rains. RIP young lady.

Good on you Kiwis! Show the rest of the world how its done!!

Some thoughts...

If there had been more testing you would have a better chance or tracing the untraceable infections. Testing continues to remain far lower than other countries. 800/mil vs 20,000/mil in Germany

You have had 3 months to prepare for this. You own medical advisers were saying we should expect the same trajectory as European countries, but you chose to ignore their advice and prioritize the Olympics.

Now you really need to have complete lock-down or the above story will be repeated throughout the country tenfold.

As other have said I wonder why this insistence with calling them imported cases? I find it very difficult to believe that Shanghai (23million), Beijing (19million) and Tianjin (13million) have no domestic cases..

Perhaps its not wanting this to be referred to as the Chinese Corona Virus in the future?

To date China has reported around 82,000 cases and a little over 3,000 deaths for a country with a population of almost 1.4 billion. No matter how well they have controlled the spread this still doesn't ring true. I suspect things are a lot worse there than they appear.

In Kyoto state schools will be open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and then be closed again from Friday.

Why only 2 weeks? This virus has just started to take hold in Japan. It seems irresponsible to consider holding any large events this year let alone in the next 2 months. Is the denial here really this bad??

but experts are worried about the rise in the percentage of cases that can't be traced.

Well this is partly what testing is for. It helps you trace the route of infection. I guess testing might be useful after all...

On NHK last night the medical advisers warned that Japan was on the same trajectory as Europe and the UK. No one seems to have heard them.

You need to

Make sure you have enough ventilators. The UK government predicts they will need 30,000 at the peak. The Japanese population is double the UK. Do you have enough?

Make sure you have enough hospital beds for infectious diseases. Field hospitals are being set up in London, Birmingham and Manchester providing 10,000 extra beds. On the TV last night they said Tokyo had only 500 beds for infectious diseases - all of which are now full. What are you doing about it??

Stop sleeping and take action now.

The medical panel also said Japan was on the same trajectory as Europe and the UK. They said we would experience the same number of deaths. (NHK9:00pm) This comment as been all but ignored. Japan are burying their head in the sand. 500 beds for a city of 13,000,000 is not enough. Get building new hospitals now.

Japan, please relax your testing requirements and test more people so we can have a clearer idea of how serious the situation is. This reluctance to call a state of emergency partly because you don't have the full picture. Extra testing would result in a more informed public and government, which in turn will lead to everyone making better decisions.