Coronavirus in Japan

My sister, the inestimable Kate Ringland, asked me to write something about the coronavirus situation in Japan. I agreed, and then immediately had second thoughts. If I asked you, “What is living through coronavirus like in America or the UK?” you would probably have to admit, “It depends.” The experience in New York or London is probably not the same as in Vancouver (WA) or Grimsby. And if you work on the frontline, as a nurse, police officer, or supermarket clerk, that’s going to be a whole different world from a teacher forced to Zoom your lessons.

Point being, I’ll share my experience, but don’t take it as representative of anything but a thin slice of a foreigner’s life over here.

ON THE GROUND

I live in Hiroshima, which is a medium sized city in central Japan. As you might know, people in Japan often wear face masks anyway, so as soon as the outbreak started everyone had a mask on. There were shortages of masks and toilet paper in stores at the beginning (yeah, people stockpiled here too.)

The government cannot legally forbid social gatherings, but people just stopped going out. The virus hit during花見[hanami] (cherry blossom viewing) season, which is when people get together for big picnics under the blossoming trees. Everyone was pretty bummed, but the general feeling wasしょうがない[shouganai] (“oh well” or “it can’t be helped.”) Restaurants closed or went to take-out only. Bars shut down completely.

While wearing a mask is second-nature, social distancing in public is trickier. One problem is that Japan is just too small. Everyone is cheek to jowl, all the time. Supermarkets put markers on the floor to help us distance while standing in line for checkout … but in the aisles, everyone is crowding together as usual. Costco, for example, had staff spacing people out at the entrance. And once we were inside it was a free-for-all crush.

The government shut down schools and sports events in March. I work in education, at private high schools, and classes have gone online in a very scattershot way. It’s pretty much up to each school to figure out how they want to handle things. Schools have started to reopen now, in May, and will probably reopen fully in June. Maybe.

SOCIETY

My wife, who is Japanese, explains Japanese society thus: everyone should be smiling, hand-in-hand, skipping down the road of life, one for all, all for one. Through good times and through bad times, we can make it together if we try.

Are you going to be the one who screws that up?

The one person in the store not wearing a mask. The one restaurant that doesn’t close down, when all the others have voluntarily shuttered. The one family that ignores isolation advice and holds a 花見 party. The one who contracts and spreads coronavirus to everyone else. It’s unthinkable.

That’s why the Japanese government doesn’t need to legally require businesses to shut, and why Japanese police don’t need to issue fines to people. The weight of social pressure and expectations is plenty sufficient.

She added another point about social-distancing. If someone comes too close to you, it’s inappropriate to ask them to back away. You can back away, but if you’re in line that’s not really possible. So you just pray a store clerk comes up and asks the other person to back up.

Some other points. Health-consciousness was significant even before the virus. From a young age kids are taught to gargle and wash their hands after coming home. From my observations, there is a physical and psychological barrier between the “unclean” outside and the “clean” inside, epitomized by the removal of shoes at the entrance to the home. Wearing masks is commonplace, especially during the winter flu season. Health advice, especially on TV, does have a tendency to be a bit faddish. A couple weeks back there was suddenly no butter in any of the grocery stores. Apparently there had been a bit on TV about it boosting your immune system. But general awareness of good practices is standard.

So why has Japan done a “good job” dealing with the virus, compared to other countries? I don’t know for certain, no one does. You can cite the factors above, but is that really all? There are a lot of other theories, some pretty wacky (e.g. Japan already had a weak form of coronavirus in the past that built up immunity… don’t ask, I don’t know.) But no one really knows. しょうがない. We just get on with life and work as best we can.

Addendum.

This gets political so I decided to put it in a footnote.

Let me summarize the Japanese government’s response to the crisis: pathetic. They acted late, and haven’t done nearly enough to help anybody. Each family got a little cash present, as in America, though even less money. But it doesn’t even cover one month’s lost wages, so what’s the point? PM Abe said he would send two cloth masks to every family, which they can wash and reuse and cherish forever. That was about two months ago, and we still haven’t gotten ours yet. It’s a joke to see him on TV, wearing his special little Abe mask, while all the other ministers around him just wear normal ones.

I work for a small business, a private English school, and there has been zero financial support. The government didn’t officially make businesses close, so that means it gets to wash its hands of responsibility. The companies we have contracts with have simply suspended classes and payments until all this blows over. Schools and sports events were shut down in March, which was sensible, but otherwise Abe’s response has been utterly reactive, not proactive. As my Japanese coworker put it, if Trump is a goldfish, Abe is the little poo clinging to his backside.

But that’s politics in Japan all over. No one really trusts the government or thinks it’s doing a very good job, but they haven’t killed us all yet, and besides could we really do better?