COVID-19: Brief overview of Risk Governance Approach from Japan (Part 3)
Risk Governance during any disaster is considered to be the role of government agencies. The COVID-19 pandemic, is a major crisis with the number of cases rising alarmingly throughout the world. As a response to the COVID-19 outbreak, most countries have taken several bold measures targeted towards health recovery and virus containment.
The interventions vary from country to country. Some of the significant measures witnessed include: travel bans on immigration and emigration to prevent transboundary transmission, screening at ports of entry, closures of schools and other public places, nation-wide lockdown and restrictions on gatherings, amongst many others.
In this blog we bring brief overview of Policy Actions taken by the Government in Japan.
Case of Japan
The first infected case in Japan was reported on 16th January 2020. The number of cases increased gradually and slowly. At that time, avoiding the spread of COVID-19 was urgent for the Japanese government especially because they expected to hold 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympics. Hosting these two international mega-events as originally scheduled was a concern based on situation of the Global Public health.
On 25th February 2020, the Japanese government formed a COVID-19 cluster task force. Their missions was to reveal clusters as soon as possible, to clarify a route of infected people and to prevent outbreaks of new cluster.
As of 2nd April 2020, they have found more than 26 clusters. For example: cruise ships, music nightclubs, welfare facilities, gyms, hospitals and the university’s club activities.
Japan recorded relatively low numbers of infected people, however, not only the numbers started to rise but even the percentage of without detected route of infection.
Early actions
It has been the most important policy to prevent collapse of medical care system from an early stage. The task force attempted just to request citizens some self-restraint.
Firstly citizens were advised not to rush to the public health center if light symptoms of COVID-19 are detected. The Japanese government emphasized to keep enough facilities and talents for serious patients at hospitals. Therefore they suggested citizens to call the public health center for an investigation or a doctoral appointment only when a citizen has continuous temperature for 4 days.
Secondly, on March 1st 2020, the authorities requested citizens not to be facilitate three conditions for outbreak of clusters, which were as follows
1. Closed space with poor ventilation
2. Gathering place with unspecified number of people
3. Talking at a short distance
They encouraged citizens to stay at home and avoid meetings all at once.
Protection measures at ports and airports
Japanese government responded to passengers from abroad several ways depend on having Japanese nationality or not, and where they were coming from. The Non-Japanese passengers from almost all countries(※1) including China and the US were refused by Ministry of Foreign Affairs based on Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act. This measure targeted passengers who reached Japan after midnight on April 3, 2020.
In addition, it also became inoperative for who have special permanent residence. To all other passengers (regardless having Japanese nationality or not) Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare orders were issued such as:
- Stay at places designated by the quarantine station chief (at home commonly) for two weeks and not to use public transport
- Before your entry to Japan, find secure place in which they live no less than two weeks and use non-public transport (own companies’ courtesy cars , car rental etc.) to commute.
- Declare the place and the transport at the quarantine.
※1 — Countries enlisted in this category are:
(Asia)Indonesia,SouthKorea,Singapore,The Kingdom of Thailand, Taiwan,China(including Hong Kong and Macau), Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia
(Oceania）Australia,new Zealand
(North America）Canada, United States
(South America）Ecuador, Dominica, Chile, Panama, Brazil, Bolivia
(Europe）Iceland, Ireland, Albania, Armenia, Andorra, Italy, U.K, Estonia, Austria, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Cyprus, Greece, Croatia, Kosovo, San Marino, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Czech, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Vatican, Hungary, Finland, France, Bulgaria, Belgium, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal, Malta, Monaco, Moldova, Montenegro, Latvia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Romania
(Middle East）Israel,Iran,Egypt,Turkey,Bahrain
(Africa）Ivory Coast,Congo,Mauritius,Morocco
The Emergency Declaration
On 7th April 2020, Prime Minister Abe announced an Emergency Declaration in seven prefectures of Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka until 6th May 2020. The main purposes of it is to reduce the contact between people who can lead to infection by 80 percent and to fix healthcare systems.
However, it is different from Lockdown enforced in other countries of the world. But then the question arises, what will be changed by this Emergency Declaration in Japan? The answer to it is that Emergency Declaration will authorize the local governments to ask additional abilities, instructions and requests. The declaration was issued based on the New Coronavirus Special Measures Law passed on March 13, 2020. Provisions under this law are as follows:
1. Enforced use oflands for temporary medical facilities:
The local government can expropriate forcefully: the necessary materials such as masks and use lands and buildings; regardless of the owner’s consent to expand medical facilities. The failure to comply will result imprisonment or a fine.
2. Restriction in running schools, social welfare facilities and event sites: The Public schools run by each prefecture can be closed at the discretion of the governor. In addition, for schools run by municipalities and private schools in the administrative area, the instructions and requests can be similarly made as described later.
In Tokyo, the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education has already decided on April 3, 2020 to close public high schools in Tokyo until next month, and many municipalities have followed that decision.
3. Requests and instructions for each business operator:
Article 45, Paragraph 2 of the Special Measures Law stipulates that “facility used by a large number of people” specified by law can “request” for restrictions or suspensions. The targeted business are movie theaters, exhibition halls, hotels, museums, cabarets, schools, department stores and supermarkets.(Excluding sales of necessities such as food, pharmaceuticals, hygiene products, and fuel).
The requests are only to ask the people to respect the policy set by the government and there is no penalty for disobeying them. The instructions are almost the same, but if not followed, the name of the business can be made public, and legal action can be taken.
Recent Developments
The Prime Minister has stated that he will implement the economic measures equivalent to 20% of GDP i.e, the 108 trillion yen. It is aimed at protecting the lives and employment of the people during the Emergency declaration period. It seems that families and small and medium enterprises facing financial difficulties that will receive a total of 6 trillion yen in cash, interest-free financing to private institutions, 26 trillion yen in tax payments and social insurance premiums.
Some of the people have criticized this declaration to be announced too late as a preventive action. The government is however worried so much about the effect of this pandemic on the economy of Japan. The future response of each prefecture has been closely watched.
Indeed, this global pandemic is a test of time for all, world-wide!
References:
https://covid-2019.live/
This article is contributed by: Misato Matsuda and Katsuragawa Haruka from Japan
