Japan News: Tokyo and national Covid-19 crisis is increasing
Chika Mori and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
The coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis in Japan is at its highest level in early 2021. This is based on daily new highs in various parts of Japan. Hence, with 6001 national infections yesterday, it is clear that the central government is extremely slow in responding to the crisis.
Indeed, the same can be said of the Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike. After all, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Koike just stood by while the infection rate increased week after week. Thus, rather than the State of Emergency before the crisis developed to a new level in Tokyo and throughout various parts of Japan, inertia took place.
Hence, new daily highs nationally and in Tokyo in the last twenty-four hours isn’t a surprise. On the contrary, the only surprise was the over-emphasis on the tourist angle and doing little before the New Year festive period. Therefore, the lateness in curtailing the internal tourist angle – despite the obvious rise of infections – equates to a neglect of duty.
In a recent article by Modern Tokyo Times, it was stated, “Tokyo and the neighboring prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Saitama are preparing for a minimalistic State of Emergency related to the ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis. This is based on the leader of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, focusing fully on economic activity. Therefore, despite the seriousness of the coronavirus crisis in Tokyo – that, in turn, is impacting on neighboring prefectures – the expected State of Emergency will be extremely basic.”
Thus, with reports of Tokyo hitting over 2,000 new infections today, it is clear that Suga and Koike have waited too long before taking action. It remains to be seen if the minimalistic State of Emergency will have the desired effect in the following weeks.
https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en/ – Tokyo Metropolitan Government website for updates about the coronavirus crisis in Tokyo.
https://toyokeizai.net/sp/visual/tko/covid19/en.html – Japan and Tokyo Covid-19 news with more analysis
https://covid19japan.com/ – Japan regional coronavirus statistics
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ World coronavirus statistics
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