20200607 (Sunday) Coronavirus Digest from Japanese Morning TV News Part 1 (of probably 1): Main news

See photo captions for stories.

Photo 01

Today’s Japan Covid-related NHK morning news topics:

• Tokyo infections: 6 consecutive days in double figures
• Nightime businesses: Tokyo and National govts to exchange opinions [Koike wants to talk about this with the economics minister aka head of the expert panel]
• 40% of people with chronic illnesses have avoided hospital visits
• Planning in order to rapidly deploy a vaccine [when one becomes available]
• Special report: People who can’t get the 100,000 yen

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46 new cases yesterday.

26 in Tokyo, 5 in Kanagawa 8 in and Hokkaido.

2 in Fukuoka.

Osaka and Kyoto had one case each, after 5 days of no new cases.

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This was the first weekend since the Tokyo alert was issued.

This is Shibuya crossing at 7pm on Saturday night.

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26 new cases in Tokyo…

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…of which 16 (60%) were night industry related: workers and customers.

SW: I haven’t looked into this, but when I see this my first reaction is, “They’re actually testing lots of people in Kabukicho, including asymptotic people. Unlike the rest of the population…” I hope I’m wrong.

MA:  I had the exact same thought – escalating shame and stigma on the night industry workers and using it as a great cover for not testing anyone else.

JA: I have the feeling they are doing it with the purpose of having a reason to shut them down for good before the Olympics, and to “restore face” with Western visitors… Clean-up before the big event

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Rush hour passengers are also on the increase. A 16% rise for May 25-29 vs. the previous week (during the State of Emergency) on the Yamanote line.

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23% more footfall at Shibuya station, and 22% more in Shinjuku and Tokyo.

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The second supplementary budget contains half a billion dollars of financial assistance to labs doing covid vaccine research.

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And they will prepare $1.4 billion dollars to drive preparations for vaccine production in parallel with R&D.

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The aim is to drastically reduce the time it takes to roll out a vaccine – a process that usually takes years.

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The health ministry has indicated a target of “beginning vaccinations in the first half of next year.”

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Along with expending effort to prepare the vaccine production system, they are also planning measures to speed up the approval of new treatments.

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Special feature on receiving the 100,000 yen. Although everyone in the country can receive this, “regardless of nationality”…

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…one group who are encountering a hurdle is people living on the streets.

[I found it slightly odd that they mentioned the “regardless of nationality” in the introduction to this piece – it’s not about foreigners. They could have said “all residents can get it…but people are on the streets don’t have an address” without bringing up the “regardless of nationality”…

I don’t think there was any specific implication of “even foreigners can get it, but Japanese nationals living on the street can’t” but still it rang a bit oddly for me.]

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The number of people living on the streets has risen a lot during this crisis. This volunteer service that gives out food has been a 1.5 increase in the number of people coming to them.

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The hurdle for the homeless in getting the 100,000 yen is that one of the conditions is producing a “juuminhyou” proof of residency (to avoid duplicate payouts).

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Some homeless people are still registered in their previous addresses, but some have fallen off the registers, because the local authorities conduct surveys of residents and strike off people who are no longer at their registered address.

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This surveying procedure happens about once a year.

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People living on the streets are consulting the ward offices in their current vicinity to see if it is possible to be temporarily registered there.

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Generally to get this they would need to be either:

• staying at some kind of “Independence support center” – a shelter that helps people get back on their feet. But conditions to be admitted include being able/willing to work [which excludes some older homeless people] and just the fact that under the current circumstances there are not a lot of vacancies, or
• Staying at an internet café – but most of these have been closed at the request of the government, so it is difficult to register that as an abode.

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Finally, the Kobe Marathon has been cancelled (as have the Kakogawa and Awaji marathons).

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It was due to be held on November 15 and there had been 40,000 applications for 20,000 spots. [Incidentally, that is quite a low rate of applications compared to other years, I think; I have seen it oversubscribed 10 to 1 in the past.]

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But it was judged that it would be impossible to avoid crowding with 20,000 runners,

It would also be difficult to get enough volunteers and medical staff.

[BTW Osaka Marathon has not been officially cancelled yet, but the governor is indicating it would be difficult to hold it.]