Octavarium comments

The victim card again. How about holding it in Okinawa, to stress the importance of not invading sovereign states (Ryukyu Kingdom)? Since holding it in China, Korea or some Southeast Asian states isn't possible...

Interesting that JT uses the strange terminology of the Japanese government, calling Ukranian refugees "evacuees". That's not good journalism. You could at least explain that the whole word is calling them "refugees" and only Japan is calling them "evacuees", for whatever reasons...

Wonder how long it will still take until Japan finally accepts reality and begins to use the term "immigrant" or 移民 in official documents etc. The official stance of the government is still that there are no immigrants in Japan.

A bunch of inept paper shufflers from Kasumgaseki got infected, because they didn't follow the priority measures.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210713/k10013137451000.html

You really can't make this up

Zoroto, I really like your posts and usually couldn't agree more.

But as someone working in a public administration I have to tell you: Give us a break! We are also only human beings.

There is A LOT of pressure on public servants in Japan during these days. I'm not surprised that something like that happens from time to time. I generally feel strange blaming people who might get very sick. Shouldn't the infection already still all revenge thoughts?

The sad thing is that everything the LDP did to the people of Japan in the last 16 months will be forgotten if just a few Japanese athlets manage to get some gold medals. The LDP will of course become reelected then.

This shouldn’t be a surprise. Ironically Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia are the only true democracies in Asia. And out of the 4 countries, Japan and the Philippines are the only two that have a free uncensored Internet in Asia.

You forgot the probably most advanced and progressive democracy in Asia: Taiwan.

This issue can't be settled with just money or "agreements". What SK wants (and that's about the whole colonization period) is a sincere apology that comes from the heart, maybe combined with a symbolic act. If we learned something from the reconciliation process of Germany with its neighbors then it's this. I personally have never seen a "Japanese Warsaw genuflection" or the Japanese prime minister and SK president holding hands while commemorating the war dead together.

Financial compensation can be always only a part of the whole. As long as their is no sincere apology that comes deep from the heart this will go on and on and always leave a big scar. To end this it's first necessary that the Japanese side fully realizes and admits its guilt (not only the politicians but also the society as a whole) but I can't see anything that goes in that direction, unfortunately. Hence, be prepared for more of these articles.

Angela Merkel is the chancellor of Germany, not the president. She didn't get into detail what's so good about Japan's response but she might mean the cluster detection and focus on avoiding superspreading events. These are the only things which also got praised by German virologists. It's surely not the low number of tests...

What a shameful and discriminatory decision again. Those so-called "pro-Pyongyang" schools have nothing to do with schools in North Korea. They mainly use Japanese textbooks. The only aspect which is different from "pro-Seoul" schools is that they put more focus on the Korean language. The pictures of the Kims are a thing from the past. Most of the schools removed the pictures and, by the way, create very intelligent and open individuals.

Chongryon also has a very strained relationship to the NK leadership already for decades, and equally tense is the relationship between Chongryon and each school which consist of teachers who were born and raised in Japan in the 3rd generation or so. They have like zero relations to NK ideology.

Taiwan (China)?

@daito_hak

Thank you, couldn't have said it better.

Dear Japanese Government,

How about allowing reentry for Japan's foreign residents first?

Residents who are stranded abroad, lose their jobs, their loves, their lives in Japan right at this moment.

Residents who are still in Japan and have to choose between attending their mother's funeral and losing their life in Japan, or staying in Japan and not being able to say goodbye to their loved ones.

Residents who pay taxes, doing dirty labor that Japanese don't want to do anymore and contributing to the Japanese economy and society.

We already understood that you don't see us as a real part of your country but do we demand too much when when we ask you to adhere to basic human rights and humanitarian values?

Best foreign regards

A foreign resident who doesn't have any of the above mentioned problems but is just disappointed...yeah, disappointed and angry.

Having the capacity to do many antigen tests doesn't mean that they will actually carry out many of those tests. Let's be rational: the prefectures are setting guidelines right now for easing the restrictions. One of the conditions which have to be met (in Osaka for example) are a low number of untracable infections. It's clear that infections both tracable and untracable will spike when many of those antigen tests are carried out. This would be a disaster for the national and regional governments. There is absolutely no political will to detect the true numbers and, as a result, maybe have to put restrictions on the economy again unless they could justify it with a second wave, let's say in autumn.

Also, to those always accusing people who complain about Japan's coronavirus response of wishing Japan a more severe situation: I'm sure nobody wants that and everybody would be happy if this ends as soon as possible. I think many people just don't want the Japanese government to get away with this. The approach of the government totally lacks transparency regarding the true state of infections and this seems to be mainly based on a non-existing willingness to make it transparent. Somebody would expect that from an autocratic state but not from a democratic state. That's what gives many people from stable democracies a feeling of discomfort, even if the virus response is bad in their home countries as well. The situation in Japan doesn't change because of that.