Osaka Account comments

A lot of the problems are not inherently derived from the pandemic, for example things like the vanishing middle class or youth unemployment (the latter seems to be prevalent in every country across the globe regardless of political philosophy). I don't see a lot of brick-and-motar shops reopening after the pandemic and there is going to be a huge monopolisation in favour of the major technology companies in Silicon Valley, depriving local communities of investment. But none of these were inherently due to the pandemic and may have happened anyway with the decadal recession. We also overlook that much of the world hasn't actually recovered from the Great Recession. .

For Japan, I wonder if there is going to be a pull away from getting immigrants to do menial jobs and instead plough through with automation - especially things like convenience stores and public transport.

What happened to the idea of asking/forcing older people to isolate, asking as many companies to have their employees work from home, but keep most shops open and younger people allowed to roam freely? Young people are the most affected from a lockdown with no upside.

Japan has infrastructure only matched by a handful of mainland Western European countries and Singapore/Hong Kong, combined with taxes similar to Canada or Australia. It is actually quite remarkable that Japan has achieved this.

I think that the cost-of-living can be slightly high (especially raw food seems to be bizarrely expensive in Japan) and working conditions more stressful. If Japan wishes to follow a capitalist supply side economics mantra, then surely it would be better to allow the cost of certain goods (food, transport...) to fall?

And on a side note about the middle class, it seems that there are some major global trends which no one seems to link up, youth underemployment and the shirking middle class.

Apart from Japan, only New Zealand (after an overt and brutal lockdown), China, Macau, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, UAE and Qatar. I doubt that any country in Europe or the Americas will avoid a lockdown during this period.

The economic impact in Macau, South East Asia and South Asia is going to be severe from previous lockdowns, and most both Qatar and UAE are suffering bad long term due to oil prices and travel bans. Taiwan is basically an extraterritorial province of Japan as well.

Japan is on a different league to the rest of the world. There is a reason why Tokyo has been voted the best place to live in the world for 2020.

Japan is probably the best country overall to be situated in for the duration of the pandemic, especially if you are a younger person (for older people, some of the positives of the success in Japan may not be useful for them and hence they may be content with the situation in several other countries).

I know Japan Today has a horribly anti-Japan bias, but generally the financial considerations in Japan (including the high savings rate) mean that the minimal disruption to business operations can be compensated for. Only Taiwan has managed to keep better normality and that's almost like a extraterritorial province of Japan (and China has also returned to a sense of normality too). New Zealand has gone way too far in its attempt to prevent further infections whereas Australia has not managed to prevent disruption to its native festive period (I honestly think that Christmas is a low priority for Japanese people).