Open discussions are going on an end of the Covid-19 disaster. One that the Abe government presents, however, is erratic. It lacks a scientific vision and, seemingly, it weighs people’s life and economic profit in the balance. We must be careful about the government attitudes as it does not carry out PCR tests as many as possible to detect contagion. Without increasing the number of testing, any measure will not work effectively.

JAPANESE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT SEE REAL PICTURES

In Europe

In Europe economic activities have opened today a little by little, but the policy should be understood correctly. The governments there have just loosened strict lockdown measures in gradual steps to get to a level of Tokyo.

The EU sets three rules to resume economic activities: (1) a slower contagion expansion in which the effective reproduction number becomes below 1.0, and if it grows, a restrictive step will again be taken, (2) massive development of PCR testing capabilities, for instance, in Germany, the current test record a day, 70 thousand, will be increased to 140 thousand (which is 14 times bigger than that of Japan, taking the population ratio of the two nations into account), and (3) good preparations in medical equipment to cope with a possible second wave of the disease. The number of ICU (intensive care units) is 29 per 100 thousand patients in Germany, while in Japan the number is seven. The European nation, after conducting a big number of PCR tests, separates virus carriers from not-infected persons. Those who show negative in the tests can engage in the economic activities. In other words the German government is ready to develop vaccines and to wait for two years or so to attain herd immunity, not simply relying on the end of infection.

Big businesses and promoters of the austerity policy, the EU main stream, desire to restart businesses as early as possible. The US President Trump encourages street demonstrations of rightists who demand to cancel lockdown. If a government guarantees people’s life, that means to them violation of the neo-liberal doctrine. The governments in Europe and US, however, cannot ignore people’s consciousness over the rights. People say ‘we cooperate with the government in suspending business activities so as to protect our lives, but the state must guarantee the rights to survive’. If the vow is infringed, a general strike will take place.

Compensations consolidate self-restraint efforts

For these reasons most of the financial mobilization policies to respond to the virus hazards in many countries, including the United States, are appropriated to making direct payments to people and improving healthcare programs, which is different from the supplementary budget made by the Japanese government. Compensations, rather than fines, have promoted people’s self-restraint behaviors.

Let’s look at Japan. Another wave of the infectious disease will come in autumn at the latest, according to a shared opinion of medical experts. The government has regulated to carry out PCR testing, being unable to specify the basic reproduction number. On May 14 a meeting of professionals was held, but the number was not reflected in their conclusion.

Mr. Omi of the Experts’ Commission, told explicitly in the Diet that ‘a total number of contracted people counts 10 times, or 15, or 20 times more than the confirmed cases and nobody knows’, but Prime Minister Abe Shinzo utters the contagion is ending.

Meanwhile, suicide cases in various sectors are reported. Voices to receive direct payment of 100 thousand Yen can be heard here and there, but the Abe government tries to push up a social atmosphere that the disaster is coming to an end. It wants to spend less in the second-round supplementary budget, disregarding people’s voices.

The government should grasp the real situation by conducting PCR testing, as the Republic of Korea has done, in order to get ready for coming autumn and winter months by allocating money in the compilation of next supplementary budget to benefits and compensations to people and by reinforcing medical, elderly care and child-nursing services.

Minister of Health, Labor and Social Welfare Kato should resign at once who has uttered ‘misunderstanding’ in the Diet. Governor Nishimura of Osaka Prefecture explained ‘the independent norms’ of the prefecture, but they are not endorsed. Governor Koike of Tokyo, who is intended to ‘give out immediately a sum of 800 billion Yen to cope with the Covid-19 disaster’, should announce as soon as possible cancelation of hosting the Olympic Games which need additional several hundreds of billion Yen.

May 26, 2020