Japan's responses to COVID-19

Suzuki, K.; Sakuwa, K.; Moon, M.J.; Kim, D.Y.

This chapter explores how Japan responded to and mitigated the spread of COVID-19. Despite several unfavorable conditions controlling the pandemic, Japan has managed the pandemic more effectively than several other countries in terms of its numbers of COVID-19 infection cases and fatalities. However, Japan has not been as successful in containing the disease as other Asia Pacific countries. Japan’s approach is characterized as a cautious and self-restraint-based approach that relies on citizens’ self-restraint behavior and personal hygiene practices rather than on enforcing strict, legally binding measures and proactively testing and tracing potentially infected individuals. Japan implemented “mild lockdowns” using nonbinding request-based approaches to reduce mobility and certain types of public activities and relying on citizens’ self-restraint behaviors to control the pandemic. This chapter shows several performance indicators of governments’ responses to the pandemic and...Show moreThis chapter explores how Japan responded to and mitigated the spread of COVID-19. Despite several unfavorable conditions controlling the pandemic, Japan has managed the pandemic more effectively than several other countries in terms of its numbers of COVID-19 infection cases and fatalities. However, Japan has not been as successful in containing the disease as other Asia Pacific countries. Japan’s approach is characterized as a cautious and self-restraint-based approach that relies on citizens’ self-restraint behavior and personal hygiene practices rather than on enforcing strict, legally binding measures and proactively testing and tracing potentially infected individuals. Japan implemented “mild lockdowns” using nonbinding request-based approaches to reduce mobility and certain types of public activities and relying on citizens’ self-restraint behaviors to control the pandemic. This chapter shows several performance indicators of governments’ responses to the pandemic and examine Japan’s response to the pandemic from a broader comparative perspective. Then, we explain three institutional factors that may have been associated with the distinctive characteristics of Japan’s pandemic approach; (1) institutional constraints on the prime; llminister’s leadership, (2) limited administrative capacity and pandemic unpreparedness, and (3) bureaucratic professionalism and closedness. Finally, we outline Japan’s COVID-19 containment policy by examining several phases of Japan’s response.
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Japan's responses to COVID-19