Tokyo Covid-19 daily infections in new high during the Olympics
Kanako Mita and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike met at the weekend and made it known that both thought the Olympics were going smoothly. They omitted the ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis in Tokyo that is under the State of Emergency – and the issue nationally. Therefore, unsurprisingly, vast numbers in Japan no longer concern themselves with the same empty Suga and Koike rhetoric.
Internal flights were packed during the bank holiday break last week. Similarly, vast numbers of people internationally have come to Japan concerning the Olympics. Hence, it is like people are turning to a normal way of life concerning the actions of the political elites.
Thus the new daily high infection of 2,848 in Tokyo isn’t a shock. Nor is the new record high in Okinawa of 354 cases that aren’t connected to the Olympics but is tied to tourism. In other words, it feels like a sense of abandonment is happening concerning the Olympic angle and no central economic government support.
Koike and Suga are enjoying their Olympic and political bubble. After all, they reside in a nation that is mainly ruled by the Liberal Democratic Party (the party they both belong to). Hence, they don’t feel genuine political pressure. Therefore, despite the ongoing coronavirus crisis Koike and Suga think that the Olympics is going smoothly in a political sense.
Koike, after she met with Suga at the weekend nonchalantly said, “We also agreed that the Tokyo Olympics are going very smoothly.”
The latest upsurge of coronavirus cases in Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures equates to more deaths, increasing numbers of hospitalizations, and long-term coronavirus issues for many after being cured. At the same time, the psychological angle after over one year is enormous in areas hit hard. Therefore, even in smaller prefectures like Yamanashi, the suicide rate is up by 44.7 percent in the first six months this year.
Everything is slow including the vaccination program that is finally working. Yet this took months of endless bureaucracy before being mainly solved because hiccups still remain. Similarly, the political elites in the LDP under Suga are doing little to support people economically unlike under Shinzo Abe who gave a one-off 100,000 yen to help. Thus the working poor and women who rely on temporary contracts have been abandoned. Therefore, female suicide is on the rise concerning economic issues.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus crisis is relegated because Suga and Koike are focused on the Olympics.
Overall, everything is depressingly predictable!
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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