RoccoL comments

It’s worth reading the article that @PIM posted.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/25/sports/olympics/tokyo-olympics-cancel.html

The IOC safety preparations are beyond a joke. They are truly frightening.

Big respect to the Asahi Shimbun.

National hero.

"the U.S. athletes who have trained for these Games and will be competing in the best traditions of the Olympic spirit".

Conveniently ignoring the many 1000s of media, officials, coaches and sponsors that will come here too.

They won’t all be in the imaginary Olympic village “bubble.”

Who are they kidding? Are they planning to set up state of the art field hospitals too?

Anyone who lives in Japan knows that for ANY serious medical problem, only a general hospital can give proper treatment (if they let you in).

Private hospitals are unable to deal with serious issues and the SDF won’t be able to treat serious issues either.

Anything more serious than rash will end up in a general hospital putting too much strain on that system at this crucial time!

It will be July so expect a LOT of heatstroke, sports injuries requiring MRI and of course COVID infections.

We don’t have the COVID beds, we don’t have the ICU beds, and we don’t have the critical care beds in those ICU units and they clearly can’t spare their doctors.

What’s utterly shameful about this situation is that countries like the US are telling their people not to come to Japan whilst we are STILL allowing flights from India. The US is managing our pandemic better than we are.

Only this week did the Japan government advise on reducing the number of passengers on flights from India to 100 per flight. The UK stopped flights from India over a month ago (and that was too late - now they have a surge of the Indian variant too).

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20210521_27/

We’ll take the SOE seriously when they stop doing such stupid counterproductive things.

I feel sad for Japan but if the people here keep voting for the same ultra inept politicians, I hate to say that you get what you asked for.

It’s not enough to just complain - take action. Vote for competent people who can reform your arcane system.

The opinion I hear from my Japanese friends here in Tokyo is that they have no right to ask people to restrict their lives if they allow the Olympics too.

Full list of sponsors from Wikipedia.

1st one to pull out is a national hero! A once in a lifetime opportunity for one lucky company to get the nations full support.

Worldwide Olympic Partners

Airbnb

• Alibaba Group • Atos • Bridgestone • The Coca-Cola Company • Dow Inc. • General Electric • Intel • Omega SA • Panasonic • Procter & Gamble • Samsung Electronics • Toyota • Visa Inc.

Golden Partners

• Asahi Group Holdings[14]

• ASICS[15] • Canon Inc.[16] • ENEOS Holdings[17] • Fujitsu[18] • Lixil Group[19] • Meiji Holdings[20] • Mitsui Fudosan[21] • Mizuho Financial Group[22] • NEC Corporation[23] • Nippon Life[24] • NTT Corporation (NTT Docomo)[25] • Nomura Holdings[26] • Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group[22] • Tokio Marine[27]

Official Partners

• Airweave[28]

• Ajinomoto[29] • All Nippon Airways[30] • ALSOK[31] • The Asahi Shimbun[32] • Cisco Systems[33] • Dai Nippon Printing[34] • Daiwa House[35] • Earth Corporation[36] • EF Education First[35] • Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical[37] • Japan Airlines[30] • Japan Airport Terminal[38] • Japan Post Holdings[39] • JTB Corporation[40] • JR East[41] • Kikkoman[42] • KT-CT Holdings[40] • Mainichi Shimbun[32] • Mitsubishi Electric[43] • Narita International Airport Corporation[38] • The Nikkei[32] • Nissin Foods[44] • Recruit Holdings[45] • Sankei Shimbun[32][46] • Secom[31] • Tobu Top Tours[40] • Tokyo Gas[47] • Tokyo Metro[41] • Toppan[34] • Toto Ltd.[48] • Yamato Holdings[49] • Yomiuri Shimbun[32]

Official Sponsors and Suppliers

• Aggreko[50]

• Alphabet Inc. (Google Japan G.K.)[51] • AOKI Holdings[52] • Boston Consulting Group[53] • ECC[54] • Ernst & Young[55] • Hokkaido Shimbun[46] • Kadokawa Corporation (Kadokawa Future Publishing)[56] • Kokuyo[57] • Marudai Foods[58] • Morisawa Inc.[59] • Nomura Kōgei[60] • Park24[61] • Pasona[62] • Shimizu Corporation[63] • Tanaka Holdings[64] • Technogym[65] • Tokyo Skytree[66] • Z Holdings (Yahoo! Japan)[67

@Pim.

To follow on, the Olympics, by any measure will not reduce any of the 4 variables used by the WHO and epidemiologists to calculate the R number.

If R is above 1 = bad - doctors will be faced with many sick people and choosing who gets a bed (read: who dies and who doesn’t). Below 1 = good - virus will burn out. 

Calculated on the 4 variables:

Opportunities to infect - I.e. number of contact points. This is why we have lockdowns and closed restaurants. 

Susceptibility of population - e.g. how likely people are to contract the virus, get sick and pass it on. This is why we have vaccines - it reduces the number of susceptible people.

Transmissibility - How easily the virus passes to another person. This is why we have masks.

Duration: the longer the contact and also outbreak, the more likely a transmission becomes. This is why it’s important to get on top of the spread quickly and to limit personal contact time.

Many outbreaks of viruses are caused by “broadcasts events” I.e. superspreaders. E.g. the Don Juan who gives herpes to 100 women (or men) in a year. 

The Olympics breaks every last one of those variables well established WHO variables AND needs only a few superspreaders to totally [expletive] us.

Why is the WHO not demanding that the Olympics is cancelled?

Dear John,

Given that your own county isn’t allowing ANY foreign travel or even repatriation from certain countries (unless you’re a privileged sportsman), would you like to hold the Olympics in Australia this year? There’s one going spare.

Best regards,

Japan

@ian

What can you say about sensationalist writing?

I think we’d all agree that when stories are exaggerated, blown out of proportion or mid-presented i.e. sensationalized it’s not helpful.

I personally didn’t find this article sensationalizing as it had stories from actual victims and actual frontliners.

The subject matter isn’t sensationalist either - overstretched and woefully ineffective healthcare isn’t quite the same as Hulk Hogans sex tape.

@ian

All news should be written like this then.

I think that all major news should have interviews and opinion from all sides which is often lacking from the journalism republished here on JT. Otherwise it becomes click bait tabloidism.

For example, articles often have details of a government action with out interviewing the opposition (which does exist). Sometimes articles are simply a provocative quote from an IOC member without comment from another source.

Although JT republished releases from the AP, Kyodo etc, which don’t always cover all angles, I think it’s good to have major news covered from multiple angles so kudos to JT and AP for this one.

AP taking the time to interview front line workers and victims, even publishing the sources under anonymity. That’s not sensationalist, it’s solid journalism. Kudos to them and JT for publishing it.

ahh the Apple Tax. 30% for not producing a thing. Simply a parasite that rips off creatives and programmers who invest their entire lives into producing their work.

Food delivery apps such as Uber Eats etc do exactly the same thing. They should charge a reasonable flat fee that reflects the cost of their actual service e.g. $2, not a percentage fee that reflects the work the ACTUAL chef, artist, programmer put into the ACTUAL product. Food delivery apps earn more from the sale than the restaurant makes in profit, and the restaurant made the food!

https://www.google.co.jp/amp/s/chicago.eater.com/platform/amp/2021/1/26/22250664/delivery-apps-destroying-restaurants-chicago-uber-eats-doordash-postmates

Consumers should be aware to go direct and avoid using these services.

Both China and Russia employing the subversion tactic a lot, been their main military strategy for decades. They believe that combat is the lowest form of war.

The tactic is to make an enemies’ society believe that everything is fake news and likely false by using disinformation. It’s called the de-moralization phase of subversion and takes decades.

It’s blatantly obvious that it happens through the comments and profiles on this very news site.

@texas-am-aggie

Except, everything being touted right now by the career politicians and medical "experts" aren't "vaccines" in the traditional sense of the term; the U.S.-created versions (Moderna, Pfizer) that Japan seems so keen to get its mitts on are still just experimental drugs that have not been approved by the American government regulatory agency -- the FDA -- except in Pfizer's case which it OK'd (not "approved" as the Fake News article posted on this site a few weeks ago claimed) only for "emergency medical use". Everything being produced by the U.S. Is far from being a one-size-fits-all "vaccine". But, if people are willing to become human guinea pigs for Big Pharma -- that is exempt from any and all liabilities linked to any "severe reactions" that result from what they create/distribute, btw -- then so be it. Let the recipient beware.

I’m curious. You’ve been pushing the Russian and Chinese vaccines for us here in Japan for weeks, as well as pushing the Olympics.

As you seem to be against the US vaccines (which have shared their safety data) from your statement above - yet pro Chinese and Russian vaccines (who have not shared their efficacy data satisfactorily) I gotta ask, what’s the weather like in Beijing/Moscow today?

Didn’t they already have this in place together with the required protocols?

The Chinese government simply didn’t follow the protocols, choosing to hide it instead which caused this pandemic and over 3.4m confirmed deaths and 165m confirmed infections. Likely much much higher.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-55756452

@gaijinkurd.

Just look at what happened to Eric Clapton the other day and the many others both reported and unreported.

I hear ya but take anything that Clapton says with a pinch of “I need publicity” salt. One of the most genuinely toxic human beings in music. Extreme racist, rapist, hypocrite and ardent COVID conspiracy theorist/self-publicist.

www.independent.co.uk/voices/eric-clapton-vaccine-propaganda-conspiracy-racist-b1849024.html%3famp

Although I don’t doubt there are rare side effects, it remains to be proved that he actually took the vaccine given his stance on the pandemic.

If we are at the “talking numbers” stage, a deal could be close (If this were a negotiation). Yesterday’s desperate move by Bach re fantasy medical workers looks like a negotiation tactic too.

Pay it - cancel the Games. Bargain.

That kind of behavior can be caused to autism or mistreatment and abuse by the parents.

I’d like to know what the father did to the boy that made him react like that.

One of the reasons for the in-family murders in Japan is the attitude of Japanese parents towards their kids e.g. expecting them to stay at home as adults to look after them as they get old, never being allowed to move away from home.

Poor parenting is a big problem here.

Respect to the Asahi Shimbun and Mainichi Shimbun for doing proper journalism. Proving once again the value of a free press.

Shame on JGov for calling them out on it.

Unfortunately these flames are fanned by Chinese and Russian attempts at subversion.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA112-11.html

I think we can all see that in comments we read on social media, blogs and news sites.

Decoupling started last year and has been recommended by PWC and others.

Its simply business sense not to have all your eggs in one basket re supply chains - especially when the supplier is an unpredictable authoritarian regime that steals the IP of companies, is involved in genocide, shuts down foreign tech services without warning and that unapologetically started a global pandemic that could have been avoided.

Not least, China’s recent shift to a militaristic footing means that those supply chains will be cut as soon as China flexes is military will in a real clash that will result in sanctions. That clash seems like it’s close - even European countries are sending ships here. They know something we don’t.

India, Malaysia and others are beneficiaries to this de-coupling and this is great for these countries. Recent trends in personalization and cheaper local manufacturing technology is resulting in a trend to onshoring anyway and climate change demands it.

@Harry_Gatto

I wonder why you got two upvotes when what you wrote is completely wrong? It was a supermarket not a convenience store.

Because it was funny, but I stand corrected and appreciate your hawkish vigilance. Skim read the word “convenience store,” line 3. The Anchorman style of writing must have thrown me!

Still, I don’t think I’ve been to a supermarket with a security guard in central Tokyo. Must be mean streets down there.

They have a right. One in six humans. Don’t go to wars around the world. Great food.

Hmm, subversion in action.

The right to be in the territorial waters of sovereign nations including Japan, Philippines and Indonesia. Nope. The right to violate the cyber security of corporations and nations for IP theft. Nope. The right to violate the human rights of the “one in six.” Nope.

Great food, sure. Great people, often. Great regime. No.

The Japan Govt (and JT) would also do well to monitor the subversion operations of Russia and China, which has been their playbook since 1945. Both are active in subversion through social media in foreign countries. I sense it’s the case in some JT comments.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA112-11.html

The threat is real and glad Japan is taking it seriously.

China is throwing its weight around in far more belligerent ways recently in a marked change of posture. Testing the waters (literally) in the Philippines right now.

It’s no coincidence that Britain, Germany and France are all sending ships to the Asia Pacific.

The shoplifter decided to add assault to his list of crimes by punching a 54-year-old security guard 

Wow! They have security guards in combinis in Yokohama? Tough neighborhood!

Currently, wagyu grading is done by Japan Meat Grading Association officials.

And was there a problem with accuracy that made this necessary, or was this yet another misguided use of a technology “because we could.”

I assume the officials, who probably did a perfectly satisfactory job, are now unemployed.

colonize the moon first, once youve got hat mastered move on to mars.

Why is colonizing the Moon or Mars necessary? Can’t we leave anything alone?