Japanese Media Criticizes Abe Government for Inadequate COVID-19 Testing and System Weaknesses

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Japanese media strongly criticized the Abe Shinzo government, claiming that the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) testing system is inadequate.

On the 2nd, Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that although the Japanese government explained that the daily testing capacity is 3,800 tests, the actual number of tests conducted averages only 900 per day. In Japan, currently, if a doctor examines a patient and judges that a COVID-19 test is necessary, they contact the public health center, and the public health center requests testing from local public health laboratories. Nihon Keizai reported that there are cases where doctors’ requests for COVID-19 tests are rejected.

Nihon Keizai also pointed out deficiencies in the testing system. After the 2009 novel influenza outbreak, Japan promoted strengthening the testing system of local public health laboratories, resulting in an increase in testing equipment. However, cooperation beyond the prefectural level is insufficient, so the testing equipment is not being fully utilized. Accordingly, Nihon Keizai pointed out that while South Korea conducted COVID-19 tests on about 94,000 people by the 29th of last month, Japan tested only about 7,000 people.

Japanese private broadcaster TBS also reported on its morning news program that although the number of COVID-19 infected people announced by the South Korean government is 3,736, which is four times that of Japan (946), some voices say this difference is due to the different testing systems. TBS introduced that South Korea has established about 570 COVID-19 testing centers nationwide, including public health centers, where anyone who wants can receive a doctor’s examination and, if infection is suspected, get tested.

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