As Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko expressed ‘a serious phase of the Covid-19 outbreak’, the Abe government established a headquarters on the following day to cope with the epidemic. It constitutes a prelude to a declaration of emergency. Taking advantage of the decision of postponing the Olympic Games, an Abe, Premier, and Koike, Tokyo Governor, pair has changed attitudes from their previous stance. Preventive efforts to tackle the disease will be made more intricate due to their tacit agreement.

FIRE CANNOT BE PUT OUT WITH BLINDFOLDED

Truths are concealed

Secretary General of WHO has reiterated to ‘have a laboratory testing first to detect virus as it is impossible to put out fire with blindfolded’.

The Abe government, however, had intentionally barred people from having a test to find contraction, sweeping truths of the infection under the carpet to leave people unaware of risks. The motivation lied in hosting the Olympics. The authorities did not examine even fully passengers, crew members and relevant people of the cruise ship, the Diamond Princess. They even advised emphatically not to go to hospital and to stay home.

As far as the Republic of Korea (ROK) is concerned, the government did everything at the onset to perform detection testing on many people as possible, isolated patients from a stage of mild symptoms and paid allowances directly to guarantee income families put under quarantine. Rigorous conditions were imposed on the housing environment when people are permitted to stay home for quarantine.

Meanwhile in Japan in total 160 thousand phone calls were made to the Consultation Center for Recent Arrivals and People Exposed to Person with Confirmed Covid-19 during a period from February 1 through March 10, out of which in total 4,500 tests were performed. Responding to criticisms in the society, the government decided early March to apply the health insurance plans for laboratory testing, but the situation did not get improved.

As of the end of March the number of deaths was approximately 60 among the publicly announced number of confirmed patients over 1,400. In the ROK the deaths were 139 among the patients over 9,000. The number of tests in Japan was around 10% of that of ROK, and the former conducted testing only on persons who aggravated symptoms.

Who keeps the safe?

The government has changed its stance as the Olympics were overdue. It began shouting, ‘a fire!’ Detection testing had been neglected and real contagion had been concealed, different from in other countries. Japanese people have been blindfolded to be keen to ‘self-restraint’. Taking advantage of the situation, the government tries to implement a step, a phase of declaration of emergency. This is as if the government was fishing in troubled water.

Governor Koike is, similarly, illicit. Testing for the virus in the country is authorized by the governors. In Wakayama Prefecture, a western part of the Honshu Island, Governor ordered to perform laboratory testing overwhelmingly when a cluster occurred in a hospital, stating that the prefecture does not follow the state’s instructions. Thus, expansion was prevented in the region.

When Governor Koike declared Grave Phase as the number of confirmation exceeded 40 a day in Tokyo, only a little over one hundred tests were made. Yet she suggested that she hopes the state’s government to issue an emergency declaration, disgusting people.

Abe and Koike use the contingency for the sake of their own, like a burglar who keeps the safe. They will not only blindfold people but also gag them. If the special law should exceed the existing laws, powers should be concentrated to prime minister and private rights should be restricted.

Let’s think of a facility, for instance, to isolate patients with mild symptoms. There are many public facilities and lots. There is no need to appropriate private assets. Facilities for the Olympic Games can be used as they are vacant. Why must the private rights be limited?

Doesn’t Premier have authority? – testing is not generally conducted and in the hospitals facial masks are in short.

Managers of TEPCO, or Tokyo Electric Power Co., were indicted for manslaughter through professional negligence over the nuclear disaster. The Abe-Koike pair does wrong similarly.

April 7, 2020