I wasn't vaccinated even once against the COVID-19 during the entire period of the pandemic. The reason is more out of laziness than out of health concern. Unlike the rest of the world, there is no need for a vaccination certificate or anything of the sort to go into restaurants or anywhere in Japan. In that respect, Japan might look more lax than other countries, despite the fact that most people obediently wear masks (I’m sure it has more to do with the fact that wearing a face mask during winter has always been common practice here). From what I’ve gathered, the death rate within 4 days of covid vaccination is on average about one in fifty thousand. To give an example, in Kanagawa Prefecture with a population of slightly less than ten million, there were reportedly about 100 deaths within 4 days of vaccination, a hundred people in five million. While it's a pretty sobering figure, scientists would argue that the death toll from the Covid would have been way much higher if no vaccination measures had been implemented, while possibly adding that it's a statistically negligible number.  But it has me wondering how the bereaved families would have felt after their beloved one passed away. According to the logic of the experts, they were sacrificed for the common good of all. For me, it's a good thing that vaccination is not mandatory in Japan. I’ve been suffering from high blood pressure my whole life, and if I get vaccinated, there is a good chance that I fall victim to the common good of society.

 Back to normalcy

 I think we can safely say that the pandemic is all but over here in Japan. Most things have gone back to business as usual. Every izakaya is open until midnight. Foreign tourists are coming back en masse. It’s almost like nothing has happened. Personally, I contracted the coronavirus this May. Although I didn’t see the doctor nor did I test myself with the test kit as I was too lazy to even read the instructions that came with it (the procedure seemed like a pain), I was convinced it was the COVID because the experience was nothing like any colds or flues I had had before. It felt like my entire respiratory system was covered with a glue-like substance which felt very unnatural and artificial. That artificial feeling I had was what convinced me that the COVID was the culprit. As rough as it was when my fever was high, I got better in just about a week and in hindsight it was no big deal. Before coming down with the virus, I had stopped wearing a mask. The government’s mandate to wear a mask in public places had been lifted in March. After years of having to wear one, it was a really nice, uplifting feeling to go around unmasked. But my decision might have been too hasty. Even now, about half of train passengers are wearing their masks, including myself.  Maybe we’re not completely off the hook yet.  I guess everyone has a story to tell after going through the pandemic, and that would be rather different from person to person. I feel like I didn’t learn anything from the experience. It only strengthened my feeling of helplessness in the face of something we have no control over, but it also gave me the time to ponder the relationship between society and individuals.

Police brutality

 It was really heart-wrenching to watch the footage where Mr. George Floyd was killed by a police officer in cold blood, aired repeatedly on CNN during the trial. And today there's the news of another victim of police brutality. It's absolutely horrifying.

 Just for everyone's information, it isn't something that only happens in the US. In my country also, there have been quite a few cases over the years where innocent civilians were killed by police.  While rarely resorting to guns as gun possession is strictly unlawful in Japan, they use excessive force when detaining people and that sometimes results in lethal damage to the lungs or the heart of the victim. In one case that happened in a city next to mine, the victim, after a heavy drink, was lying unconscious on the street at midnight when the police came along and detained him with excessive force. He died soon afterwards. Or in a case in Hokkaido, they forced the victim face down on the ground for an extended period of time, making him unable to breathe, much like how Mr. Floyd was killed. The only difference is that no one is held accountable here in Japan. I'd always wondered why the media were not willing to make an issue out of it, and so once left a comment on Yahoo! News Japan saying it's a big social problem that should draw public attention. But the majority of other commenters took sides with the police saying it's standard procedure as there's no telling what risks they may face when dealing with suspicious people, and my comment got tons of thumbs-down. I see their point that there's nothing morally wrong with them taking extra precautions against someone suspicious, but that cannot be an excuse for killing innocent people. It's scary to think that anyone could run the risk of getting killed if they are stupid enough to sleep on the sidewalk, for whatever the reason might be.

 

 The good news is that the amount of radiation in Tokyo right now is only about half as much as that in Moscow, according to a group of Russian nuclear experts who have come to Japan and measured the level of radiation in soil on the premises of the Russian Embassy in Tokyo. With this scientific evidence, they are advising their government to lift the warning against travel to Japan.

 

 The bad news is that an opposition group within the Democratic Party of Japan are capitalizing on the disaster to pursue their bid to take over the much coveted post of Prime Minister. 

 Speaking of higher radiation levels, according to an article in a recent issue of a Japanese popular magazine, the amount of radiation measured in a water treatment plant in Tokyo around the year 1964 was about ten thousand times higher than it is right now, because it was in the midst of the Cold War, when nuclear experiments in the Pacific Ocean were common events; the radiation would have spread from the South Pacific Ocean all across the globe, with Japan taking a huge brunt because of its proximity. Except this fact was not made public at the time. 

 Changing the prime minister and the cabinet now will only further slow down the relief and recovery efforts that appear to be very slow even now. Don't they realize that now, of all times, is not the right time for a power struggle?

 Much has changed in the world of Japanese politics since Japan's Democratic Party took power a year and a half ago. First off Hatoyama resigned less than a year after he took office, just like his predecessors from the LDP. The general feeling among people is that they are disillusioned once again, with the knowledge that the Dems won't be able to make the changes they promised to bring about. One of the Dems at the top publicly admitted that wresting control from the bureaucrats, like Hatoyama promised during the election campaign, has turned out to be anything but realistic. The budget screening (jigyo-shiwake), which with a lot of fanfare they started in the form of public hearings, is beginning to look like a huge waste of time and energy, or a mere political stunt at best, as people begin to realize that these changes are just temporary small fixes and won't get into the core of the issue; the system itself that allows unscrupulous, lavish spending and funneling tax money into some special interest groups won't change, since decision-making bodies remain the same. Child allowances, one of the promises the Dems made during the election that seemed to have worked in their favor, turned out to be a trick. A tax hike on families with children more than cancels out the bonus money, but alas, mighty is the power of cash. It appears people are treated like brainless monkeys in the old Chinese sayings. The primary reason for their victory in the last election was because in their manifestos they promised to provide cash to different strata of the society, compensation cash for every failed agricultural effort, the child allowances for the families, and so forth. Their cash-based strategy did work fabulously. People are no better than monkeys that can be very easily duped. The guy behind all these plans, by the way, was Ichiro Ozawa, who's now having a real tough time despite deserving the most credit for the regime change. The initial planned amount of the monthly child allowance, 26000 yen, had been arbitrarily set by him on the spur of the moment, without any rational calculation or any financial feasibility taken into account. The amount was attractive enough, real good bait for the voters. But after the election ended in their landslide victory, the amount has been cut down to half and there's no prospect that it will be paid in full amount, just as expected for those in the know, but it's okay as long as people get their hands on cash. They won't complain. Other changes they promised to make, such as getting rid of the notorious special health insurance for the elderly, are taking too long to be implemented, and it would make a lot of sense to suspect that these reforms might be reversed as soon as they get out of power, as has been the case with the postal reform that the LDP promoted. 

　Hatoyama's approval ratings are plummeting. People are beginning to suspect he's not fit for the job. And for good reason, every time he speaks out, he exudes lack of confidence and decisiveness. Over the past few months he and his party have been plagued with money scandals that surfaced one after another. Yesterday the Diet was convened for the first time this year and he was grilled on his money scandal, an accounting fraud having to do with huge donations from his mother, who came from one of Japan's most affluent families. He denied he knew anything about the fact that he got the money from his mother, but given the huge amount of money involved and the fact that the donations spanned more than five years, it's very unlikely that he didn't know anything about it. That's what most people would think. When he denied his direct involvement with the scandal yesterday, he started his statement with the cliché involving a grandiose-sounding four-Kanji-character word (4-moji jukugo), “I swear by the gods of heaven and earth (天地神明に誓って) that I'm innocent, blah-blah-blah (cited from the Japan Times).” This was exactly the expression beloved by members of the subway gas attack cult when they denied their allegations. Obviously Hatoyama did the worst mistake and made the situation worse. Everybody would think when someone uses such an expression, he's lying. People overexaggerate when they lie. 

  Personally I've never seen a political leader with such a dismal lack of confidence and determination, Japan or elsewhere, and it was disconcerting to hear the grandiose expression that reminds everyone of the nightmares long ago. Years back, his mother reportedly said in a magazine interview that she was determined to make his son another prime minister from the Hatoyama family, after his grandfather. In Japan, traditionally, prime ministers are not chosen because they are best fit for the job but because they are the most powerful money-wise. Now people realize what she meant. 

　Despite Japan being the world’s second largest economy, suicide rate here is among the highest throughout the world. Annual suicide deaths have never been below 30 thousand over the past decade. Percentage-wise, it is 20 people per one hundred thousand population. In 2008 Japan ranked eighth in terms of suicide rate, with former Soviet countries and a former satellite communist country rounding out the top ten. 

 The news today reports that a recent investigation into causes of train delays in and around Tokyo has found that the biggest cause last year was train suicide, accounting for more than half of about 40 thousand delays. 

　Train companies have figured a way to address this problem: They are replacing red lights usually installed at stations with blue lights, as blue is believed to have a “calming effect” and thus could deter people from committing suicide. 

 

In fact train delays are almost an everyday thing here and the term “jinshin-jiko” (train accident involving human injury or death) is one of the most heard 4-moji jukugo (4-Kanji-character idiom) these days. Train workers’ jargon for gathering up mangled and scattered body parts after an accident is “tuna disposal (maguro shori),” and it’s not uncommon that travelers to Japan are unfortunate enough to witness the scene and be traumatized for the rest of their life. 

 On a side note, Japan will no longer be the world’s second largest economy in a few years, maybe next year at the earliest. China is going to take over that position. It is believed to surpass even the US around year 2040.