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Public officials in Japan are avoiding direct statements at a time when public needs clear info. In response to ? of whether government will ask businesses to close to contain virus, Cabinet secretary Suga says "after we see outcome of cooperation with the request not to go out"
So government is relying on individuals rather than taking systemic action. In Chiba, Gov Kensaku Morita says it will be difficult to ask businesses to close b/c "compensation is involved” But central government is not being clear if it will compensate businesses for lost income
PM Abe said 80% decrease in “human to human contact” is needed. Now officials who have said bars & nightclubs are hot spots for virus spread are instead focusing on trains. At gov’t briefing, officials noted 30% decrease in Tokyo subway ridership & 40% on
Yamanote commuter line
Yamanote commuter line
When I spoke with Keiji Fukuda, director of school of public health at U of HK, he said "The discipline of the population is really one of the hallmarks of the Japanese so it’s possible that the thinking is simply to rely upon that and provide guidance to the population (MORE)
“..and they will implement things like social distancing. But I think that the difficulty is that eventually when you start employing a lot of social distancing actions it’s really onerous and tough on the population and you want really people to understand (MORE)
Dr. Fukuda, con’t: “At least if they are going to have hardship, they need to know why are they undergoing hardship and why go through the pain of an outbreak and this is where being more communicative and being able to provide numbers which are closer to reality is so important"
