Abe Embarrassed by Inadequate COVID-19 Measures... "Focused Only on Constitutional Revision and the Olympics"

"50% Say COVID-19 Response Inadequate"...Fear Spreads After First Death
Hosaka Yuji Criticizes "Downplaying Domestic Damage and Keeping Quiet"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] The Diamond Princess cruise ship, docked and quarantined at Yokohama Port in Japan, has reported an additional 99 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), dealing a blow to the Shinzo Abe administration. Japanese experts, including Professor Yuji Hosaka of Sejong University, analyzed that the Abe administration’s focus on other issues such as the upcoming Tokyo Olympics scheduled for July and constitutional revision led to the collapse of quarantine measures.

According to local Japanese media such as NHK on the 18th, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Japan reached 520 as of that morning. An additional 99 confirmed cases were identified on the Diamond Princess ship the previous day, and 7 more cases were confirmed within Japan, increasing the total by 106 in one day. The number of infected people in Japan has surpassed the combined total of infected cases in all countries except China and Japan (371 cases).

As the number of confirmed cases rises, distrust in the Abe government’s COVID-19 response is growing within Japan. At the same time, Prime Minister Abe’s approval rating is declining. According to a telephone poll conducted over two days on the 15th and 16th by Asahi Shimbun targeting Japanese voters, 50% of respondents said the government’s COVID-19 response was insufficient. Only 34% gave a positive evaluation. Additionally, 85% of respondents expressed anxiety that COVID-19 would spread in Japan. In a telephone poll by Kyodo News, the Abe cabinet’s approval rating dropped by 8.3 percentage points from the previous month to 41%.

In Japanese politics, criticism of the government’s inadequate quarantine measures is mounting, especially from opposition parties. Kazuhiro Haraguchi, chairman of the parliamentary countermeasures committee, criticized at a press conference the previous day, saying, “We demanded the government prepare for the worst-case scenario, but they were completely unprepared.” Akira Koike, secretary-general of the Japanese Communist Party, also pointed out, “The risk of infection spread in enclosed spaces like cruise ships was fully predictable. If passengers had been disembarked and tested promptly, a mass infection situation could have been avoided.”

Since the first death from COVID-19 infection in Japan on the 13th, public anxiety has risen sharply. The first deceased, an elderly woman in her 80s from Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, showed pneumonia symptoms from the 22nd of last month but was excluded from virus testing because she had no travel history to Wuhan City or Hubei Province, nor contact with anyone who had been there. However, she tested positive in a virus test conducted shortly before her death. It is known that she was transferred among several medical institutions for treatment before passing away, raising concerns about secondary and tertiary infections.

Experts analyze that the Japanese government’s negligence in quarantine measures stems from its efforts to avoid mentioning COVID-19 damage due to the Tokyo Olympics and its preoccupation with constitutional revision, resulting in a failure to implement proper proactive measures. Professor Yuji Hosaka criticized, “If large-scale quarantine measures were announced, there is a possibility that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would suggest adjusting the Tokyo Olympics schedule, so the government minimized and kept quiet about domestic damage.” He pointed out, “Even when typhoon damage occurred in October last year, the Abe government failed to implement proper countermeasures and instead focused solely on political propaganda claiming that only by securing emergency provisions through constitutional revision could the government properly respond to large-scale disasters.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.