Sound like the oft-derided Japanese '3Cs' much? https://twitter.com/DKThomp/status/1260305939153985536

GOJ info has been promoting this for some time: https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/content/000061935.pdf It grew out of the focused 'active epidemiological investigation'(積極的疫学調査) undertaken at the beginning of the outbreak by Japanese experts to get a richer picture of infection and transmission.

Raises the prospect that these experts were not ineptly twiddling their thumbs and extracted useful information? https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/Coronavirus-Why-Japan-tested-so-few-people