LA Times (June 23)
“Los Angeles County health officials reported 2,571 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the third day in the last week that the county has reported more than 2,000 infections.” Authorities suspect a link to mass protests. In addition, the county’s death toll from COVID-19 has risen to 3,137. By comparison, the combined total for all 47of Japan’s prefectures is less than 1,000, and Tokyo prefecture, with a population roughly 4 million greater than LA county, has logged 321 deaths.
Tags: COVID-19, Deaths, Infections, Japan, Los Angeles, Mass protests, New cases, Tokyo, U.S.
Chicago Tribune (May 4)
“To defeat the coronavirus and prevent future outbreaks, Americans need to reassess some ingrained social customs and lax sanitary practices.” It’s time to adapt the Japanese customs of “bowing instead of handshakes, using face masks and removing shoes before entering homes are deep-rooted and hygienic.”
Tags: Bowing, Coronavirus, Face masks, Handshakes, Ingrained, Japan, Outbreaks, Reassess, Shoes, Social customs, U.S.
New York Times (April 28)
“Delaying the Tokyo Games by a year already poses enormous economic, political and logistical challenges, including whether Japan can hope to recoup its $10 billion investment.” Without a vaccine, however, a 2021 “timeline may be optimistic.”
Tags: Challenges, Delay, Economic, Investment, Japan, Logistical, Optimistic, Political, Recoup, Timeline, Tokyo, Vaccine
New York Times (April 19)
“Tokyo may have been lulled into complacency during the weeks when Japan contained the coronavirus while avoiding economically devastating lockdowns.” Aa the Government urges a 80% reduction in contact, there is too much normalcy. “It seems too many people are trying to squeeze into the 20 percent.”
Tags: Complacency, Contained, Coronavirus, Devastating, Government, Japan, Lockdowns, Normalcy, Tokyo
Bloomberg (April 7)
“Welcome to the table, Mr. Abe. Japan’s been waiting” for leadership. The Prime Minister’s “fiscal package may look bold, but action is late.”
Tags: Abe, Action, Bold, Fiscal package, Japan, Leadership, Prime minister, Waiting
The Guardian (March 23)
“Canada said it will not send athletes to Tokyo Olympics, New Zealand said it would consider boycotting Tokyo 2020 and Australia told its olympic athletes to prepare for the games to be held next year, in 2021 – all in the wake of Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, saying postponement could be an option.”
Tags: 2021, Abe, Athletes, Australia, Boycott, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Olympics, Tokyo 2020
Forbes (February 28)
Japan’s Q4 6.3% GDP “plunge is a harsh wakeup call,” but the “talk of the Olympics being scrapped” is actually “an opportunity to refocus on what really matter. If Abe had used the last several years doing heavy lifting on reform rather than betting it all on Olympic glory, Japan would have greater endurance. It’s time Tokyo got to work actually creating a brighter future. Not just staging one.”
New York Times (February 26)
“Japan can’t handle the coronavirus. Can it host the Olympics?” The nation’s leaders have a “sense of entitlement.” This “breeds indifference and incompetence,” which was on full display during “by the unmitigated epidemiological and public relations disaster that was the saga of the Diamond Princess cruise ship.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Diamond Princess, Disaster, Entitlement, Incompetence, Indifference, Japan, Leaders, Olympics
CNN (February 17)
“Japan’s economy is flirting with recession, and the novel coronavirus could push it over the edge.” To some, a recession now looks “inevitable.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Economy, Flirting, Japan, Recession
Time (February 14)
“The number of patients infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus aboard a quarantined cruise ship docked in Yokohama, Japan has continued to rise—making the ship the largest cluster of the deadly virus outside China.” The cruise ship now “accounts for more than one third of all cases detected outside mainland China” and also boasts the highest infection rate worldwide. “Nearly 6% of the 3,711 passengers and crew members now infected.” In contrast, Wuhan’s infection rate is less than 0.3%.
Tags: China, Cluster, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Cruise ship, Infection rate, Japan, Patients, Quarantine, Wuhan, Yokohama
