05 June 2022, Sunday– Coronavirus Digest from Japanese Morning TV News Part 1 (of 1): Headlines and (yesterday’s) numbers

Day 769 of doing these daily posts continuously.

See photo captions for stories.

Photo 01

Japan covid-related topics in NHK’s 7am news bulletin today:

Visa issuance at a record low

Photo 2a

18252 new cases confirmed

[vs. 25759 for the same day last week. 35922 the same day two weeks ago.]

47 out of 47 prefectures reported cases yesterday.

No new daily case records.

Nowhere with five digits

Quadruple figures in 5 prefectures:

Okinawa, Osaka, Aichi, Kanagawa, Tokyo

34 prefectures in triple figures

8 prefectures in double figures

Tokyo on 2071 [vs. 2549 same day last week]

Osaka on 1493 [vs. 2243 same day last week]

[Tokyo has been down vs. same day previous week for 22 straight days now]

The number of positives at immigration testing was 14.

[Border testing has been relaxed even as double the number of people are being allowed into the country. After several days of over 100 cases at the border, we are suddenly down to 5 and 8 for the last couple of days, but double figures here.]

Photo 02b

The total of current active serious cases stands at 84, down 2 from the previous day.

23 deaths announced yesterday, for a total of 30750

Total recorded cases at 8934822

Recovered cases at 8660357 (around 33,000 recovered cases from the previous day)

Total active cases are at 243,715 (down around 15000 vs the previous day and dropping below 250k).

Percentage of active cases as a percentage of the grand total of cases is 2.72%.

Photo 03

Last year, around 90,000 visas were issued to foreign visitors.

Photo 04

This represents around 1% compared to the peak of 8,270,000 in Reiwa Year 1.

Photo 05

And it’s the lowest ever since the government started to publish these figures in Heisei 11.

Photo 06

The tight border controls and limit on foreign entrants to Japan over the last two years are of course the main reason for this drop.

Photo 07

Of the 90,000 visas issued, most of these were for foreign technical trainees, and people needing humanitarian consideration.

Photo 08

By country, Vietnam was the largest portion at around 15,000, with China coming in second with 12,000.

Photo 09

Since March of this year, Japan has been easing its border measures.

Photo 10

And is hoping to increase the number of entrants to Japan (while keeping an eye on the infection situation).

Photo 11

Finally, I’ll just mention that large parts of the country are expected to enter the rainy season in the next few days.