What Japan is like during this pandemic

 Hi everyone! I hope you are doing well and enjoying your Fall Quarter!

Today I want to talk about the current situation in Japan with the pandemic. Before talking about COVID, I will touch on some political movements that have happened recently. Last month, our Prime Minister changed to Prime Minister Suga, as our former Prime Minister, Abe, had to retire from health issues. 

Around the same time, the government launched a campaign called the “GoTo campaign” that has been applied all over Japan. This campaign is designed to encourage people to go to restaurants, go travel, use hotels, etcetera, to help businesses that had to stop during the time we shut down. The users would get discounts when they decide to use those businesses. There are both positive and negative opinions about this action as the pandemic has not yet settled. While people think it is good for the economy and businesses, others think that it is going to make the situation worse. According to COVID 19 Japan, there are still 200-700 people who test positive every day. While this might be better than certain countries, it still is not completely safe. So, something to think about is whether you think Japan is ready for this campaign or not. If you have an opinion, feel free to let me know what you think! 

Other than that, most people wear masks without questioning them and are careful with social distancing and sanitizing. I know some people do not believe in masks, but that is not really an issue in Japan because we have a culture to wear masks in public especially during flu season. So, most people are used to wearing masks. Some people prefer or like wearing a mask even if there are no diseases going around because it hides their faces, so they feel more secure. If you ever come to Japan during fall or winter, therefore, you will probably see many people wearing masks even if there are no pandemics. 

So far, I talked about the whole country’s situation in general, and now I will tell you about my situation!

In my city, there are zero cases so far during this whole pandemic season. So, it is a very safe place to be. People are still careful and wear masks, but they are more like manners for us rather than doing it to save our lives. We go to restaurants and shop at the weekends as we do normally. I really really wanted to go back to Santa Barbara, but since the environment I am in is so safe here, I decided to stay home. While taking classes online in a different timezone, it is really hard to keep track of my schedule. Class times and homework submissions can be confusing. Right now, I have 6 am classes and 1:30 am classes that I have to attend live. This will change when the time changes in the States to 7 am and 2:30 am… I am not looking forward to the 2:30 am schedule… It feels very lonely studying on my own, but I am hanging in there spending the day with my dog while studying. Recently it has been pretty cold, so we set up the kotatsu (a low table with a blanket that heats up inside). I am very happy because it is so cozy and whenever I am sleepy I can take a nap in the kotatsu. Here is a picture!!

All in all, this is the situation in Japan and where I live. Let me know by commenting below if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them!

Source: https://covid19japan.com/