reposting from last bread, because something is funky.
Japan Anon checking in.
Yes Japan has had relatively few deaths, but part of that is because of how the Japanese government tests people and how they classify deaths.
Abe decided to delay any lockdown for as long as possible, but once we started hitting infection rates that were above 500 to 1000 a day he had too much pressure to shut things down. But, it was the right thing to do. We are going to have a huge economic hit from it, but it could have been a LOT worse.
In regards to testing, it is not easy to get tested here, it is improving but you had to have a doctor call the testing center and arrange testing to be done from a central call center, so many people were told to just go home and deal with it. I personally don't know anyone within one degree of separation who got infected, I know of 3 people who got infected via a friend of a friend of a friend.
They locked down the retirement homes, aged care homes and hospitals very tight and that helped a lot.
EVERYONE wants to go back to normal, and we all have the feeling of if we get it, we will deal with it. But that is part of Japanese culture, we deal with natural disasters all the time and we have a feeling of "Shoganai" or it can't be helped, so deal with it.
There was a small outbreak today of 70 people who got infected, outside of Tokyo, but that is to be expected as a lot more people are out and about.
We also have some good news about Dark to Light: https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2020/05/864f5cbb4d24-japan-firms-ultraviolet-technology-succeeds-in-weakening-coronavirus.html
There has been almost ZERO political posturings regarding Covid here, which is to be commended. No one is winning political brownie points like the democrats are doing.
Hopefully we all get back to work soon, I personally did not stop going out and working but many people and companies did.
Good luck Frens.