Tokyo in possible new Covid-19 state of emergency: Re-run of Yuriko Koike
Kanako Mita and Noriko Watanabe
Modern Tokyo Times
Tokyo reached a new daily high of coronavirus (Covid-19) infections yesterday. Thus with 367 new cases and July being the worse month in terms of new infections, then the numbers are threatening a new state of emergency.
Yuriko Koike, the Governor of Tokyo, hinted strongly that firmer measures are in the pipeline if new infections continue to grow. Sadly, in the early stages of increasing new infections, the sex entertainment districts and nightlife angle of Kabukicho and Ikebukuro were tolerated. Therefore, the virus was given the opportunity to spread to the wider community.
Not only this, her inaction not only threatened Tokyo but also the neighboring prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Saitama. Hence, her hint of a new state of emergency in Tokyo is largely based on limited actions when containment was possible.
Koike is offering “cooperation money” to companies that comply in areas of concern. Yet, with high rental costs, it is doubtful that all companies will abide. Thus, firmer action is needed because the new outbreak is partly based on allowing known areas of high infections to remain open.
Modern Tokyo Times (July 9) said, “High new infections are creating enormous psychological damage to many workers and the general public. Thus it is galling that the known source of many infections is endangering Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Saitama. Therefore, the utter selfishness of a small minority – and the lack of control mechanisms by Koike – is astounding.”
Overall, the spike both times was all too predictable in Tokyo. This relates to Koike’s distractions during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics period and her re-election. In between, the coronavirus came down dramatically between early May and the middle of June. Therefore, increases before the postponed Olympics and her re-election followed by new highs.
Equally, the sex entertainment and nightlife angle was a known high source of the problem – not the sole angle. However, it was allowed to fester until it spread once more to wider society from the middle of June onwards.
Hence, it is galling that the psychological angle is continuing for so long and largely based on past failures.
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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