Judge Smails comments

I am sure Putin's propaganda trolls will be posting again shortly defending his action. However, it is clear that Ukraine is putting up a much stronger fight than Putin imagined and reports he is extremely frustrated now with the speed and resistance. The majority of the rest of the world has strongly united against him and taking stronger actions than he anticipated. In Russia, he is facing all sorts of criticism from sports figures, celebrities, and other intellectuals. Massive protests but the government is doing everything possible to block these on TV and social media. Stay strong Ukraine.

Where is that guy that was telling us all how great Sputnik was and we should have it here in Japan?

History will remembers China's contribution to fight this massive havoc of the 21st century!

If you mean China's contribution to the cause of the pandemic then you are correct. Please remember Chinese government's attempt to jail and suppress anyone that initially spoke up that there was a problem happening in Wuhan. The lack of transparency by the Chinese government is what created this havoc.

Suga, your state of emergency is just working so flawlessly here in Tokyo!! What a brilliant idea to extend it to the rest of Japan. I am sure that will bring the number of cases down to zero in no time. Do not mind the fact that most restaurants are packed full with no social distancing. That is not the problem. It is that damn alcohol!!

Gov Yuriko Koike urged the organizers to make sure not to burden Tokyo's hospitals.

It seem every Japanese government official wants to shift the blame to someone other than themselves. The rise in Tokyo numbers is mainly attributed to the extremely slow rollout of the vaccinations and now supply shortage. Plus, the meaningless state of emergency guidelines. Did she really think closing restaurants one hour earlier would really decease the numbers?

TokyoJoeToday  08:04 am JST

 Ever been to a restaurant in Japan and been the second people in. Guess where you are sitting, crammed up again the first people elbow to elbow in an empty room. It's the Jp way.

I agree. There is no concept of social distancing here and the vast majority of restaurants here just do not care and pack as many people on top of one another as possible. I wish the government would wake up and realize this is one of the main contributors of the spread and not eating out past 8pm, the "evil" alcohol, or the foreigners bringing it in from overseas.

I do not understand in a stadium of 60,000 people why you cannot spread 5,000-10,000 people across the stadium and do it safely. It has worked well in the rest of the world for sports. Much more safe than packing everyone on the trains during commuting times or everyone rushing to eat together in packed restaurants during lunch or before 8pm. The concept of social distancing just does not seem to resonate here with this government.

@NipponGlory

You seem to only appear when the numbers are down. What do you think about that great Suga and his aggressive roll out of the vaccines here in Japan. What an amazing leader your worship.

Zoroto is correct about US. You do not need to be US citizen as you cannot ask for proof of residency.

I know some Japanese citizens that got vaccinated in US while there in Golden Week. Not very difficult to fly to US. Just need to show negative PCR test to depart Japan.

@Kyakusenbi, you do not need Health insurance to get the vaccine in the US I flew back for my vaccine in early April and no longer have health insurance there. It is not required. Just need to show ID for age verification

Supposedly the actors were shaking hands with the fans. I can only shake my head at that logic for some people.

I have never seen them disinfect the train stations and inside the train cars like they were doing in Korea and other countries. Maybe they do this over night but at least in the pictures the other countries were doing this throughout the day. I would feel more reassured if I saw them constantly sanitizing these highly occupied locations.

Another record in Tokyo today. 90 more cases.

Anyone else notice in the picture that half the members are sleeping? I know, nothing new for these Diet pictures. You would have hoped that they were taking the situation a little more seriously other than just wearing masks. Maybe they were hoping they would wake up and this was all just a bad dream.