Category Archives: Japan

Japan faces Olympian task with slow start to Covid vaccinations

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With a vaccine-hesitant public and jabs yet to begin, there are fears immunisations are off the pace

Japan was among the first countries to report cases of Covid-19 after the world was alerted to the virus in December 2019. But just over a year later, it is the last major economy to deploy a vaccine – a measure widely acknowledged as the best hope for a return to something resembling normal life.

The first round of jabs is not expected to begin in Japan until the end of February, months after the US and UK – which have recorded far higher death tolls and caseloads – began their vaccination programmes.

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Japan dismisses ‘categorically untrue’ stories that Tokyo Olympics are doomed

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  • Sources at IOC adamant Games will go ahead in July
  • Country has surge in Covid cases centred on capital

The Japanese government has vehemently denied a story that it has privately concluded that this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo are doomed, calling them “categorically untrue”.

Sources at the International Olympic Committee have also told the Guardian that they are still planning for a “full Games” in July, despite the spiralling number of Covid-19 cases in Japan and across the globe. They also dismissed a Times report that said that government officials had resigned themselves to cancelling the Olympics and were instead hoping a wave of sympathy would help Tokyo secure the 2032 Games.

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Tokyo’s Covid outbreak adds to doubts over hosting Olympic Games

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Emergency measures expanded to cover more than half of Japan’s population

A dramatic rise in coronavirus cases in Tokyo has reignited speculation about the Olympic Games, which are due to open in the city in just over six months’ time.

Japan widened its coronavirus state of emergency to cover more than half the country’s population on Wednesday, as surging infections sparked warnings of intense pressure on hospitals.

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Master brewer: the woman excelling in Japan’s male world of sake

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Miho Imada has won international acclaim as a tôji, or master brewer of the traditional Japanese tipple

As a child, Miho Imada promised herself she would never perform “women’s work” to support her family’s sake brewery. She saw how her mother juggled looking after five children with cooking three meals a day for groups of visiting seasonal workers, and devoted what little time she had left to doing the accounts.

“I never saw my mother sleep, and she never seemed to catch a cold,” Imada said. “She was always working. I thought ‘there’s no way I’m going to do that.’”

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Why the delay? The nations waiting to see how Covid vaccinations unfold

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Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Japan are among those that won’t start vaccinating for months, in part to see how other populations react to the jab

They are the nations that have been held up as shining examples of coronavirus management. In Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan, daily Covid infections are in the single digits and outbreaks are quickly suppressed.

But there is one area where these nations lag well behind the pack in vaccination. Countries with some of the most enviable healthcare systems in the world – including Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea – will not begin to inoculate until the end of February or later.

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Olympics official says he is not certain Tokyo Games will go ahead

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IOC’s Dick Pound voices concern after host city declared state of emergency due to third wave of coronavirus

Dick Pound, a senior member of the International Olympic Committee, has said he “can’t be certain” that the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games will go ahead this summer, as a coronavirus state of emergency was declared in the host city.

Asked about the prospects that the Games will open on 23 July, the Canadian told the BBC: “I can’t be certain because the ongoing elephant in the room would be the surges in the virus.”

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Seoul court orders Japan to pay damages over wartime sexual slavery

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Japan denounces ruling as ‘unacceptable’ as row over sexual enslavement of women in the second world war enters new chapter

Japan has denounced as “utterly unacceptable” a South Korean court ruling ordering it to pay damages to women who were sexually enslaved by the Japanese military before and during the second world war.

The Seoul central district court on Friday said Japan was liable to compensate 12 women who were forced to work as so-called “comfort women”, in a ruling that is expected to inflict further damage on the countries’ already fraught ties.

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Japan’s PM declares state of emergency in Tokyo amid Covid crisis

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Record number of coronavirus cases reported sparking fears hospitals will be overwhelmed

Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has declared a state of emergency in the greater Tokyo area after a record number of coronavirus cases were reported in the capital and across the country.

Suga had come under pressure from his own health experts to take action, as the country battles a third wave of infections far more serious than those seen earlier in the pandemic.

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Fresh fears for Tokyo Olympics as host city sees surge in Covid-19 infections

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  • Tokyo reported 1,300 new coronavirus infections on Thursday
  • Health experts concerned over stretched medical infrastructure

When Japanese and International Olympic Committee officials finally accepted defeat in March and postponed the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, there was general agreement that a one-year wait would give the world ample time to overcome the coronavirus pandemic.

The delayed Olympics, the then prime minister Shinzo Abe said, would be an opportunity to pay tribute to the human spirit in overcoming the world’s biggest public health crisis for a century.

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Japan reports five cases of coronavirus variant found in UK

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Cases emerge as Russia becomes latest country to tighten controls on travel from Britain

Five cases of the new coronavirus variant spreading fast across the UK have been found in Japan, and Russia has become the latest country to impose stricter quarantine on travellers from Britain.

Japan has avoided the huge infection numbers seen in countries from the US to Europe, but cases are rising sharply and daily numbers passed 3,000 for the first time this month.

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Honeymoon over for Japan’s new PM amid Covid third wave

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Support for Yoshihide Suga plunges as his travel policy is blamed in part for rise in infections

Yoshihide Suga’s honeymoon period as Japan’s prime minister had barely begun when coronavirus intervened. Now, two months into his leadership, he finds himself battling a resurgent outbreak and disillusionment among voters.

Enthusiasm for the farmer’s son who worked part-time to pay his way through university has all but evaporated since he took office in late September. As Japan prepares for a holiday period that experts fear could be overshadowed by a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases, an anxious public has Suga in its sights.

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Japan’s ‘Twitter killer’ sentenced to death

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Takahiro Shiraishi, 30, admitted killing nine people he befriended online after they expressed suicidal thoughts

A court in Japan has sentenced to death a man dubbed the “Twitter killer” for the murders in 2017 of nine people whom he befriended online after they had expressed suicidal thoughts.

Takahiro Shiraishi, 30, admitted strangling and dismembering his victims, eight of whom were women, over the course of three months. The youngest was 15 and the oldest 26.

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Japan Covid cases reach daily record as ‘third wave’ hits

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A record 555 people are in hospital with serious symptoms, with military nurses requested to help overstretched health services

Japan has reported a record daily number of coronavirus cases, prompting health experts to urge people not to travel in the run-up to the New Year holidays.

The country reported 2,811 new infections on Wednesday, as well as a record 555 people with serious Covid symptoms, the Kyodo news agency said.

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Japan town’s sole female councillor ousted after accusing mayor of sexual assault

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Shoko Arai was voted out of her seat after making allegations against mayor that most residents said damaged the town’s reputation

The only female member of a town assembly in Japan has been voted out of her seat after she accused the mayor of sexual assault, in a setback for the country’s nascent #MeToo movement.

Shoko Arai, until Monday a councillor in Kusatsu, a popular hot spring resort north-west of Tokyo, lost her seat after more than 90% of residents voted to recall her, saying she had damaged the town’s reputation, Japanese media reported.

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Japan’s Hayabusa2 sends capsule carrying asteroid samples towards Earth

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Capsule will burn through atmosphere before landing in South Australia in the early hours of Sunday morning

Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft has successfully separated a capsule and sent it toward Earth to deliver samples from a distant asteroid that could provide clues to the origin of the solar system and life on our planet.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the capsule successfully detached Saturday afternoon from 220,000km (136,700 miles) away in a challenging operation that required precision control. The capsule is now descending to land in a remote, sparsely populated area of Woomera, Australia, on Sunday.

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Why has wedding of Japan’s Princess Mako still not gone ahead?

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Plans still on hold after revelations about finances of would-be groom’s mother two years ago

They have been together since university, their emotional bond apparently stronger than ever despite being separated by an ocean and a continent. And they have the blessing of a likely future emperor.

But for Japan’s Princess Mako – the eldest daughter of the first in line to the Chrysanthemum throne – and her boyfriend, Kei Komuro, the sound of wedding bells has grown more distant in the three years since they made their relationship public.

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Carlos Ghosn: UN tells Japan treatment of ex-Nissan boss ‘fundamentally unfair’

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UN says former executive should be compensated for ‘arbitrary’ detention, though it made no judgment on allegations against him

The former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn’s multiple arrests and detentions in Japan before he dramatically fled the country last year were “arbitrary”, UN experts have ruled, urging Tokyo to pay him compensation.

In an opinion dated late last week and harshly condemned by Japan, the UN working group on arbitrary detention concluded that “the process of arresting and detaining Mr Ghosn four times was fundamentally unfair”.

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France to ease Covid rules as Asian countries consider stricter action

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WHO says Europe faces third wave early in 2021 if nations repeat their failures to prepare

France is preparing to ease its Covid-19 lockdown rules in the weeks leading up to Christmas with new daily caseloads falling and pressure building from retailers to allow the annual shopping season to go ahead.

But parts of east Asia that were thought to be controlling the disease have raised the possibility of new restrictions.

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