SNA (Tokyo) — The following stories were reported in the first half of March 2020 by the Shingetsu News Agency.

Rolling Coverage: Covid-19

—The Sakhalin authorities have requested that the Russian central government restrict all air and sea transport connections with Hokkaido from March 5 in response to the Japanese prefecture’s declaration of a state of emergency due to Covid-19.

—While the fate of the Olympics still hangs in the balance, Covid-19 has already sealed the fate of spring’s cherry blossom viewing parties.

—Toyosu Market has stopped allowing tourists and other visitors at the facility due to concerns about the spread of Covid-19 infection.

—Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says “a new subsidies program will be established” for people who must take off work because of the 13 million schoolchildren who will now be at home. Critics upset that Abe offered no details and seems to be hastily making it up as he goes along.

—Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s request to close all schools nationally being hit as a political stunt rather than a scientifically-based decision. They say closing schools in Hokkaido makes sense, but what about prefectures where there are zero Covid-19 cases?

—Rumors swirling that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s planned April visit to Japan will be suspended. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has spent a lot of political capital with his nationalist base to make this visit happen, but Covid-19 may bring it to naught.

—Covid-19 seems to have brought on the Perfect Storm for Shinzo Abe, and he might actually be in political danger this time. This is doubly true because its possible that his own inner circle is no longer internally united at this juncture and can’t cope.

—The Diamond Princess cruise ship now sits empty at Yokohama port, the final group of crew members having disembarked. It is marked for sterilization and safety checks, but the timeline for completion of this process is undetermined.

—Japan Sumo Association announces that the show must go on. The spring basho in Osaka will begin as scheduled on March 8, but no audience will be allowed in the chamber. Some other sports events taking the same tack. People can watch the events on TV at home.

—Prime Minister Shinzo Abe asking the National Diet for power to declare a “state of emergency” over Covid-19 that would give the government authority to restrict individual rights. This has long been a goal of rightwing “reformers” and the current crisis is the opportunity.

—Not all schools and not all prefectures are accepting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “request” that they close to prevent the spread of Covid-19 infection. Shimane Prefecture, for example, operated schools as usual today and has not announced any plans to close.

—Luminous Cruising, which operated dining cruises from the port of Kobe, has declared bankruptcy, finally done in by a cascade of customer cancellations after the Covid-19 outbreak on the Diamond Princess scared people away.

—Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cornered into admitting in Diet debate that his decision to call for the closure of all schools in the nation was taken without consulting even a single expert and without a clear understanding of the full social ramifications.

—One explanation for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s inept performance in dealing with the Covid-19 issue, now being posited by some senior ruling party lawmakers, is that Abe is simply exhausted. The man has just started running out of gas after dealing with multiple crises.

—It has also been revealed that Education Minister Koichi Hagiuda, one of Abe’s closest political supporters, was also kept out of the loop on the prime minister’s decision to call for all schools in the nation to close down. Hagiuda may have actually opposed the decision.

—A point to note is that Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has turned into the Invisible Man lately. Why is Abe’s crisis manager nowhere to be seen? This gives additional credibility to stories that there’s been a quiet Abe-Suga political divorce over succession issues.

—Approval ratings plummeting, mismanaging a major crisis, bureaucrats and the ruling party leaking stories to the media, his own team divided… This really could be the final days of the Shinzo Abe government. Certainly, it is his most serious crisis since his 2012 return.

—Sakhalin to suspend flight connections with Hokkaido from March 5 due to Covid-19. Foreigners arriving in Sakhalin who have visited Hokkaido during the last 21 days will also be quarantined for 14 days.

—Health Ministry has established a telephone hotline for public inquiries about Covid-19, offers the services only in Japanese language. For those residents and visitors who don’t speak Japanese, they will offer only a simple website or tell them to contact someone else.

—Some analysts are suggesting that Smoking Rooms are particularly prone to becoming venues for the spread of the Covid-19 infection, as enclosed spaces with poor ventilation. There are calls to close them down until the coronavirus threat subsides.

—World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Covid-19: “The epidemics in the Republic of Korea, Italy, Iran, and Japan are our greatest concern.”

—The government of India has cancelled all visas and eVisas that had been granted to nationals from Japan, Italy, Iran, and South Korea on or before March 3 as a measure to prevent the domestic spread of Covid-19 infection.

—Beijing Municipal Government announces that any visitors to the city from Japan, South Korea, Iran, and Italy will be forced to undergo a two-week quarantine before being allowed to enter. Effectively, Beijing city now has a travel ban on Japanese and South Koreans.

—The total number of Covid-19 cases in Japan, including the Diamond Princess, crosses the 1,000 level. There have been 12 deaths. Meanwhile, the worldwide figure for cases is approaching the 100,000 level, with about 3,200 deaths.

—Train lines in the Tokyo area, including the shinkansen, are reporting a 20%-50% fall off in passengers, with March expected to come in near the steeper end of that decline. This is, of course, related to Covid-19, the cancellation of events, and fewer people going to work.

—US President Donald Trump on possible Covid-19 travel restrictions: “We’re watching Italy very closely, South Korea very closely, even Japan very closely. We’ll make the right determination at the right time.”

—Democratic Party For the People leader Yuichiro Tamaki declares the scheduled July start of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to be “difficult.” He suggests that a delay of the opening until October might make sense.

—Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways announce that they will reduce domestic flights for at least a week as demand for air travel is falling off under the impact of Covid-19 countermeasures.

—Prime Minister Shinzo Abe asking the main opposition parties not to oppose a special Covid-19 law that would allow the government to call a state of emergency for up to two years and involve powers to enforce restrictions on businesses and individuals.

—Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan Yukio Edano signals that his party is likely to cooperate with the Abe government on passing a Covid-19 emergency law, likely breaking once again with the Japan Communist Party.

—Japanese companies in India trying to grapple with new entry restrictions. Suzuki Motor, which is the titan of the local auto market, orders all its Japanese employees to remain inside India and not travel abroad unless absolutely necessary.

—New York Governor Andrew Cuomo: “We’re going to recall SUNY and CUNY students from study abroad programs in five countries – China, Italy, Japan, Iran, South Korea… We are taking every precaution necessary and mobilizing our public health system to protect New Yorkers.”

—Shinzo Abe expected to announce a de facto entry ban on all travelers from China, South Korea, and Iran, which is a major escalation of the Covid-19 policy and will have an enormous economic impact.

—The Abe government finally admits that Chinese President Xi Jinping will not be visiting Japan in April, as had long been planned. They will try to find a new time slot after the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, assuming that these too aren’t delayed or cancelled.

—South Korea’s National Security Council condemns Japan’s Covid-19 entry ban: “It is unacceptable that the Japanese government took such an unjust action without prior consultations with us, and we will explore necessary countermeasures based on principles of reciprocity.”

—The number of foreigners entering Japan in February fell by over 60% in year-on-year terms. In February 2019, the figure was 2.37 million. An exact figure for this February is pending, but it was less than 1 million.

—The de facto travel ban on Chinese entry will include Hong Kong and Macau. Meanwhile, some South Korea and Iran travelers will face a full travel ban, not even including the option for a two-week quarantine.

—The Abe government has reportedly threatened the government of India that unless it lifts its Covid-19 entry ban on Japanese, there will be consequences for bilateral relations, including the Japan-funded Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train.

—The Foreign Ministry announces that Japan will temporarily nullify about 2.8 million visas held by Chinese and 17,000 held by South Koreans as part of the new entry ban provoked by Covid-19 infection fears.

—As expected, South Korea retaliates against Japan entry ban, announcing it will end visa-free entry for Japanese citizens: “Our government once again expresses our deep regrets over Japan’s measures that it unilaterally announced without prior consultation or notification.”

—S&P Global ratings estimates Asia-Pacific economies on track for US$211 billion in damage from the policies surrounding Covid-19 countermeasures. They “will exert domestic supply-and-demand shocks in Japan and Korea.”

Abe government cancels the official annual ceremony that marks the triple disaster of March 11, 2011, as another measure aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19 infection.

—Motoi Suzuki, head of the Infectious Disease Surveillance Center at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, suggests the real number of those infected with Covid-19 is probably “several times” higher than the official number of 461 (excluding the Diamond Princess).

—Foreign Ministry reports that 27 countries or regions around the world have now imposed some sort of travel restrictions on Japanese over Covid-19 infection fears.

—It seems that a pair of music clubs in Osaka turned into venues where dozens of young people were infected by Covid-19 in mid-February. Apparently, an infected person attended events at the Clubs and the infection spread widely among the patrons.

—Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says that small and midsize companies hit by the outbreak of Covid-19 will be eligible for interest and collateral-free loans through the Japan Finance Corporation.

—Yokohama Mayor Fumiko Hayashi denounces threats against Chinese workers in her city: “People in Chinatown, who have supported this city’s development over many years, have been suffering great pains over matters related to the new coronavirus. I’m utterly infuriated.”

—Michael Ryan of the World Health Organization denounces Japan and South Korea for engaging in “political spats” over Covid-19 entry bans. He adds, “It’s very, very important that people understand that these types of restrictions are not helping.”

—Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan agrees to quickly pass legislation that will give the Abe government emergency powers to deal with Covid-19 related issues.

—Covid-19 infections in Japan not related to the Diamond Princess have now crossed the 500 level, including 6 deaths. Globally, there are now more than 110,000 confirmed infections and 3,825 confirmed deaths.

—Both ruling party and the opposition are pointing out the woeful inadequacy of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) in the Covid-19 fight. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have 200 times the budget and 40 times as many personnel.

—China temporarily suspends visa waivers for Japanese nationals intending to stay 15 days or less for sightseeing, visiting friends, or transit purposes. Business travelers and those visiting family will still be able to receive visas.

—Nippon Professional Baseball announces delay in opening the new season from the scheduled March 20 until sometime in April.

—Japanese Association of Infectious Diseases President Kazuhiro Tateda warns that the nation’s battle to contain the coronavirus may not end anytime soon: “It may take several months to half a year, or even last beyond year-end.” There’s no indication warm weather helps.

—The Abe government has begun to officially designate the domestic spread of Covid-19 as “An Emergency of Historic Proportions.” This mainly has significance for document management and preservation purposes.

—Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says that entry restrictions on South Koreans had no political purposes.

—US presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard: “In order to protect the people of Hawaii, we must now suspend flights from Japan and South Korea, where the virus has been spreading. It is irresponsible for our leaders to endanger the health and well-being of Hawaii’s people.”

—Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says that the Covid-19 event cancellations, which he originally said were needed for two critical weeks, will actually be needed for a longer period. He has asked for ten more days, but may extend further after that.

—A group of ruling party lawmakers are petitioning the Abe government to reduce the Consumption Tax to 0% as an economic measure to combat the Covid-19 coronavirus. It’s perhaps the first time that members of the LDP have taken up Reiwa Shinsengumi’s economic program.

—Sankei Shinbun argues the news media should stop all criticism of the Abe government because Covid-19 represents a threat equivalent to Nazi Germany and their role is to preach unity. They ultimately suggest that critical media should be abolished.

—Wondering when the Japanese rightwing will start figuring out that Constitution revision, aircraft carriers, and Aegis Ashore do absolutely nothing to protect the nation from the actual threats to Japan’s national security, such as this Covid-19 crisis and climate change.

—Saitama city excludes Saitama Korean Kindergarten from receiving its distributed masks for Covid-19 infection prevention, with one Saitama city official suggesting that the masks might be “sold off” if they were provided to Korean kindergartens.

—Central Japan Railway has announced it will soon reduce services on its Tokaido Shinkansen line between Tokyo Station and Shin-Osaka Stations, as Covid-19 has sharply reduced the amount of passenger traffic.

—The National Diet, with the support of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, has now given Prime Minister Shinzo Abe legal authority to declare a “state of emergency” over the Covid-19 epidemic.

—Polls are suggesting that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s public support levels have stabilized. Last month, his lack of action on Covid-19 issues led his support to plunge. His recent bout of activity appears to have arrested that decline for the time being.

—Some Japanese conservatives and rightwingers insisting on using the name “Wuhan Coronavirus” instead of the now-official Covid-19, apparently in order to assert that the global affliction is China’s fault. US President Donald Trump, too, has called it a “foreign virus.”

Rolling Coverage: Covid-19 and the Olympics Issue

—Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto suggests that instead of being cancelled, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics might be held later in the year. She asserts that so long as they take place before December 31, Japan fulfills the International Olympic Committee’s mandate.

—International Olympic Committee head Thomas Bach: “I would like to encourage all the athletes to continue their preparation for the Olympic Games, Tokyo 2020, with great confidence and full steam… We continue to support the athletes and the National Olympic Committees.”

—Estimating the costs of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and the economic damage that would incur from its cancellation, is not straightforward and is open to some interpretation, but the figure of US$10 billion may be in the ballpark.

—SMBC Nikko Securities projects that the cancellation of the Olympics would reduce Japan’s GDP by about ¥7.8 trillion (US$72 billion), or 1.4%, a major hit to an economy already being hit by the twin shocks of a higher consumption tax rate and Covid-19 countermeasures.

—Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike acknowledges that the Covid-19 crisis being declared a pandemic will certainly affect the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, but she insists that an outright cancellation of the Olympics is “impossible.”

—President Trump on Tokyo Olympics: “I would say maybe they postpone it for a year. You know, I like that better than I like having empty stadiums all over the place. I think if you cancel it, make it a year later, that’s a better alternative than doing it with no crowd.”

—Reuters: Liberal Democratic Party faction leader Shigeru Ishiba criticizes the government for refusing to acknowledge possibility Olympics will be cancelled: “Not thinking about worst-case scenarios won’t eliminate the risk of them materializing.”

—The Abe government is still in denial about the Olympics, insisting they are planning neither to cancel them, hold events without spectators, or make any significant policy change. Global events have clearly moved beyond this, but still no leadership in Tokyo.

—Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto: “I’m aware of President Trump’s remarks but neither the International Olympic Committee nor the Organising Committee is thinking at all about delaying or cancelling the Games.”

—The reality seems to finally be dawning on the Abe government that the fate of the Olympics is not all about how well Covid-19 is contained in Japan, but also about its global spread. Even if the doors are wide open, there may be no one who shows up.

—Even the never-say-die International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach is beginning to publicly acknowledge that Covid-19 threatens the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. He suggests that if the WHO recommends cancellation, that he would accept it.

—Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: “We hope to overcome the spread of infections first and foremost and hold the Olympics as planned without a hitch… The Olympic flame will arrive in Japan. I’d like to go to Fukushima to witness the start of the Olympic torch relay.”

Politics

—Three political secretaries to former Justice Minister Katsuyuki Kawai and his ruling party lawmaker wife Anri Kawai have been arrested over suspicions of campaign finance law violations. This is another major blow to the already wobbly Shinzo Abe government.

—Shukan Bunshun alleging that Kake Gakuen, run by Shinzo Abe’s close friend Kotaro Kake, has been systematically discriminating against Korean applicants, making sure that none of them can pass the entrance exam to enroll as students.

—Abe government’s War on Transparency continues during the Covid-19 crisis. Two out of three meetings of the expert panel advising the government kept no records, supposedly because they occurred on holidays and no stenographers could be hired, or audio recorders turned on.

—Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga reached a unprecedented 3,000 press conferences (for house-trained Japanese press club journalists only) since gaining his current position in December 2012.

—Lest anyone forget who Shinzo Abe still is, he remains friends with fascist Naoki Hyakuta, and even invited him to dinner at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence on the evening of February 28. Even when Hyakuta makes his vile remarks, this is no disqualification for Abe.

—Justice Minister Masako Mori getting in trouble with the ruling party and prosecutors in her own ministry over some of her comments in the Diet. She even got called to a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who let her know that she’s on thin ice.

—As prosecutors ignore major crimes by Establishment figures, they tenaciously pursue petty violations by anti-Establishment groups. Protect the Nation from NHK has its offices raided for filming the screen of a tablet device used by an NHK viewing fee collector.

International

—South Korean President Moon Jae-In: “Japan is always our closest neighbor… Joining hands while reflecting on history is the path toward peace and prosperity in East Asia. Let us prevail over crises together and make joint efforts for future-oriented cooperative relations.”

—Abe government continues doing what it does best: whitewash Japanese history. This time they’ve targeted a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty exhibition to be held at the United Nations. They say that unless references to Fukushima Daiichi are dropped, they will pull funding.

—Hakodate city is selling off the old Russian consulate building, which is the site of the first Russian diplomatic mission in Japan. Local groups are protesting the move, fearing that the building could be knocked down. The current building dates from 1908.

—Three US Senators write open letter criticizing Japan’s hostage justice system and its treatment of Greg Kelly: It is “raising serious questions about whether non-Japanese executives can comfortably work in Japan under its legal system.”

—US President Donald Trump nominates Kenneth Weinstein president and CEO of Hudson Institute, to become the next US Ambassador to Japan. The Hudson Institute is seen as being close to the Trump administration.

Economy

—It has been announced that construction of all new permanent venues for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics is now complete, pretty much on schedule.

—Rakuten announces a retreat from its free shipping plan, hit by the Fair Trade Commission on one side and angry retailers on the other. Rakuten hasn’t abandoned its plan, but its implementation will be postponed.

—Shinzo Abe government continues its habit of announcing lofty economic targets that it usually later fails to meet. This time, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says fishery and forestry exports can be doubled to ¥2 trillion (US$19 billion) by 2025.

—With the downward revision of the 2019Q4 growth figure to -1.8%, this makes it the worst quarterly performance of the Shinzo Abe era. And recall that this was largely caused by the consumption tax hike, before all of the shocks from the Covid-19 coronavirus policies.

—Abenomics Results: This economic program, whose whole point was to pump massive amounts of money into the economy to accelerate growth, produced total GDP growth of -0.9% in Japan from the beginning of 2018 to the end of 2019. This was before the coronavirus.

—As many have warned, the Bank of Japan and other central banks have few weapons in their arsenals to stimulate the economy now that a crisis has hit. Massive monetary easing in normal times to artificially inflate markets mean there’s not much they can now do.

—During season for licensed Japanese fishing in Russian-held waters around Kunashir, Japanese boats caught a total of 343 tons. That was up on last year but still only 38% of their quota. They also face increased Russian inspections and tighter regulations.

—Sapporo District Court orders the government and TEPCO to pay a combined ¥52.9 million in damages to 89 people who evacuated from their hometowns to Hokkaido during the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

—Nine years after the 3.11 triple disaster, full local train services have restarted. The JR Joban Line has now reopened along its entire length, including the section that runs near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

—Third-party panel finds that 75 KEPCO executives received a total of ¥360 million (US$3.4 million) in bribes from the pro-nuclear former deputy mayor of Takahama, Fukui. Prosecutors have laid no charges for accepting all these bribes and the guilty men keep their jobs.

GreenTech

—Rakuten set to launch a price war as it becomes Japan’s fourth operator in the mobile phone market. While their service will initially be available in major cities, the monthly fees will be less than half that of NTT Docomo, SoftBank, and KDDI.

—SoftBank announces that it will launch its first 5G services on March 27 at a monthly charge of ¥1,000.

—Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to begin flight tests in June to develop technology for the reuse of the first stages of rocket launch vehicles, following in the footsteps of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which mastered this technology by 2015.

—Abe government proposes legal revisions that would expand the scope of possible punishments for illegal downloads. If passed, the bill will make it possible to impose criminal penalties for the downloading of copyrighted manga, magazines, and essays.

—Japan Meteorological Agency says that cherry blossoms in the Tokyo area have begun to bloom, and this is the earliest date they have ever done so, apparently because this winter has been so warm.

Society

—A 27-year-old transgender woman who has spent the last nine months in custody at the detention center of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau in Shinagawa is claiming that her human rights are being violated, on counts related to her sexual minority status.

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A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the first half of March 2020.