09 July 2022, Saturday — Coronavirus Digest from Japanese Morning TV News Part 1 (of 1): Headlines and (yesterday’s) numbers.
Day 803 of doing these daily posts continuously.
See photo captions for stories.
Photo 01
Japan covid-related topics in NHK’s 7am news bulletin today:
Nothing covid-y on this morning’s news.
Today’s report is collated from info from this morning’s 7am and last night’s 9pm bulletins, plus the NHK website.
As I mentioned to Steffen Eckart last night, these daily reports are covid-focused, and Abe’s murder has been and will continue to be extensively covered in local and international English-language reports, so not a lot for me to do. But in acknowledgement of the size and import of this news, I will briefly deal with it first.
Photo 2a
So, the former prime minister Shinzo Abe was stumping on the election trail just outside Kintestus Yamato Saidaiji station in Nara when at around 11:30 am he was shot from behind by a 43-year-old man. The man is said to have spent about three years in the maritime Self Defense Force (i.e. the Japanese navy) when he was in his 20s.
Two shots were fired from a homemade weapon, the second shot apparently striking Abe in the chest. The gunman was tackled by Abe’s security detail and arrested. Medics on the scene administered CPR on Abe, but it was reported that he was in a state of pulmonary arrest even as he was transferred to hospital. Doctors worked to revive him for the next several hours, but he was pronounced dead at 5:03pm.
(Regular readers will know that I am no fan of Abe, his Yomiuri-aligned revisionist take on history, the grift of his administration and the brazen way he stayed put in the face of scandals that would have toppled past PMs (to broadly name a few problems), but I am sorry for his wife for being put through this, and for the Japanese people as a whole, who have taken a massive blow to the psyche in the wake of almost unheard of gun-based violence against a massive public figure.
On the other hand, he was Japan’s longest serving prime minister and he was pretty much guaranteed to get his face on a bank note down the line until covid derailed what was supposed to be his victory lap of honor, presiding over a highly successful and popular Olympic games that would have capped a decade’s worth of attempting to revitalize the Japanese economy through tourism. Who knew that the man dressed up as Mario at the 2012 London Olympics closing ceremony would be forced to retire for health reasons in the middle of a pandemic ahead of a deserted Tokyo Olympics, and would then be gunned down ignominiously in the provinces just a year later?)
JA: It’s said his 90+ year old mother cried and told staff at the nursing home to not turn off the TV. Her father was the target of an assassination attempt but survived when she was young girl. I can’t imagine how she must feel, poor dear. Yes, Abe was a twat on so many levels, as PM I have little respect, yes he did some good things in respect to Asian affairs, as a husband, father and son in his private life I understand he was a decent man without scandal, I do feel sorry for his mum and family…he did not deserve this
JC: The “father” Kishi was a Class A War criminal: Abe idolized him and wished to emulate him in many ways. I mourn any violence, but we need not overlook history and overly praise the victim.
Photo 2b
The gunman used a homemade weapon make of pieces of pipe mounted on wood and held together with duct tape.
I would like to borrow from my friend David Mc’s post for a pretty thorough take on the weapon and shooter:
Something I’m seeing a lot of online about the Abe assassination is talk about the weapon used and that the assassin was ex-military.
The shooter was indeed ex-military. He was a former JMSDF officer. The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force is Japan’s “navy that’s not officially a navy because that would violate Artcle 9 of the constitution that forbids Japan from rebuilding its military so instead we call it a self-defense force”. He was in for a very short stint (I believe it was 3 years) almost 2 decades ago.
Thus, it’s really unlikely he had any special firearms skills. He wasn’t some Rambo or MacGuyver or Casey Ryback.
And this particular attack, at very close range, doesn’t require any particular skill. At this range, with the type of weapon used, all that’s needed is to point and shoot. And it’s noteworthy that the shooter got off two shots, one of which missed. At this range, that’s more indicative of a LACK of skill.
Below is a picture of the firearm in question. This is (or at least appears to be) a very simple and easy to build weapon, made from easily available plumbing parts, with a support of either scrap wood or metal. The firing mechanism appears to be a 9 V battery. From watching the video of the incident and from witness reports, it seems likely that the shooter was also using improvised ammunition. My best educated guess is black powder from fireworks, which are widely available in Japan. (High quality fireworks can be purchased from many different outlets, including most neighborhood corner convenience stores.)
Again, this is not something that requires any special skills to build. The information is widely available. Parts are easy to come by, and the tools used to assemble it are common household tools that most people have already.
Simon addendum:
I haven’t read many of today’s reports but it looks like this guy was a lone incel who had believed too much of what he read on 2chan (the Japanese version of 4chan).
Early speculation was that the shooter was an disgruntled far right-wing nationalist, but you’d have to be pretty far out on the extremes to think that Abe had somehow gone soft on nationalism, militarism and the Emperor system. (Like that time some punks beat up Jello Biafra.)
Photo 2C
Alternate view of the weapon that shows some features more clearly, including the battery.
You are unlikely to see much detail about the gun in the Japanese media as they will be wanting to avoid copycat incidents.
Photo 03
Among the furor of the Abe murder, the fact that Friday’s covid daily cases topped 50,000 inevitably took a back seat [this is the first time over 50,000 cases since April 14].
Photo 04
[Taken from the NHK website]
50107 new cases confirmed
[vs. 23156 for the same day last week, 15815 the same day two weeks ago.]
47 out of 47 prefectures reported cases yesterday.
New records for daily cases today in 4 prefectures: Kumamoto (1672), Oita (585), Tottori (243 ) and Ehime (605)
Nowhere with five digits
Quadruple figures in 11 prefectures:
Shizuoka joins the quadruple club, along with more regular members, Okinawa, Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Hyogo, Osaka, Aichi, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba and Tokyo [9 prefectures same day last week]
36 prefectures in triple figures [29 prefectures same day last week]
Nowhere in double figures [9 prefectures same day last week]
Nowhere in single figures
Tokyo on 8777 [vs. 3546 same day last week]
Osaka on 4805 [vs. 2135 same day last week]
The number of positives at immigration testing was a solid 25.
[Border testing was relaxed even as the number of people being allowed into the country has doubled from June 01.]
Photo 05
[Taken from the NHK website]
The total of current active serious cases stands at 71, up 4 vs. the previous day.
29 deaths announced yesterday, for a total of 31421
Total recorded cases at 9601237
Recovered cases at 9245214 (around 17,000 recovered cases up from the previous day)
Total active cases are at 324,602 (up around 34000 vs the previous day and back over 300k).
Percentage of active cases as a percentage of the grand total of historical cases is 3.38%.
Photo 06
The week-on-week increase for the week up to yesterday vs. the previous week is 1.78.
Photo 07
These 11 prefectures have increase rates of 1.74 and over.
Tokyo, Kanagawa and Chiba are all over 2 (i.e. double the number of cases vs. the previous week).
“The risk of this turning into a 7th Wave is increasing.”
Photo 08
This Tokyo clinic had 19 positive cases in all of June. For July, they have already 19 positive cases as of July 08.
Photo 09
The doctor notes that while most of his patients in May and June were younger, this month he has also had a number of positive cases among people in their 60s and 70s.
Photo 10
He is prescribing oral medicine that prevents the development of serious symptoms to a certain number of high-risk people, something that he didn’t have to do last month.
Photo 11
He notes that a lot of people who are getting covid in their 30s are younger generations who have not had their third jab.
Photo 12
The clinic says that there is a tendency for it to be quite easy to get a high fever even for people in their 30s if they have not had their third shots.
Photo 13
Less than 50% of people in the 20s and 30s have had their third jab.
Photo 14
In Nerima ward, 140,000 people have not had their third jab yet.
The ward is sending materials by post to encourage people to get jabbed.
And they are also calling on people via Twitter to come and get jabbed.
Photo 15
From July 02, they have increased the number of mass vax centers in the ward, including paces that are open on weekend afternoons, and where you can get jabbed without making a prior appointment.
Photo 16
Official: You can get jabbed at night, you can get jabbed on Saturdays and Sundays.
Photo 17
[And NHK has rotated its talking heads back to] Tateda: It has become clear that third jabs reduce the risk of Long Covid symptoms appearing too.
Photo 18
“From that point of view as well, it is necessary for even the younger generations to get their third jabs…”
Photo 19
“…And for old people and the immune-compromised [people with existing conditions, etc.] to proceed with 4th jabs.”
Photo 20
[Next up was more stuff on BA.5]
For the week ending June 27, BA.5 was suspected in 33.4% of new Tokyo cases.
Photo 21
A university group has used AI to project the numbers of cases in Tokyo in the coming weeks.
Cases will peak around July 20 at around 17,500 cases daily, and taper off slowly – still over 10,000 cases a day per Tokyo forecast even by the end of September.
In the middle of August, deaths could be up to 26 people a day, with most of these centering around the over 65s. [Just to note that today’s number was 29 anyway…]
Photo 22
The Nagoya tech uni professor: We think that cases numbers will be comparable to the peak of the 6th wave.
Photo 23
Professor: Since it’s the highly infectious BA.5 we’re talking about, we don’t really expect that implementing Manbo measures and such would have much effect.
Photo 24
Professor: The important thing is for people to take thorough measures at the individual level and to gradually reduce case numbers.