Author: Zhang Olin
"No one is making reservations now, cancel one by one, and with the Olympics postponed, it is estimated that the summer situation will not improve."
63-year-old Toshiko said with a thick stack of cancelled orders, said weakly. The hotel she runs, called "Travel Light", is located in the Taito district of Tokyo. It has just been renovated and renovated, and part of the cost still depends on loans.
Affected by the epidemic, the number of Japanese travelers decreased. The picture shows the Tokyo hub station Shinagawa Station on April 4th, local time, and the frequent bustling change to the entrance has become very rare.
Originally because of the hosting of the Olympic Games, a hotel in Tokyo this summer was hard to find a room a year ago. Many practitioners have expanded their scales, and everyone is full of ambitions, but did not expect to encounter the winter. In Japan, the increasingly serious epidemic of new pneumonia not only smashed the "Olympic Dream" of ordinary people like Ishii, but also changed the lives of more people.
The epidemic has turned sharply and the medical system has suffered a huge impact
On April 9, the number of newly diagnosed cases of new coronary pneumonia in Japan exceeded 5,000. At this time, nearly three months have passed since the first confirmed patient appeared in Japan. On April 18, tens of thousands of cases were diagnosed in Japan. From the first 5000 to the second 5000, Japan took only 9 days.
The epidemic rapidly deteriorated and had a huge impact on the Japanese medical system. At present, there are about 9,600 beds for patients with new coronary pneumonia in Japan, but the number of inpatients in 9 prefectures has exceeded 80%.
In Tokyo, the white-haired president of the Tokyo Medical Association, Masao Ozaki, held tears when he attended the press conference: "We here are responding to the government's request every day to increase the bed by 100 or 100 places, but there More than 140 and 160 patients will be added, and the bed will be full in the blink of an eye. "
"After 25 days, new patients in Tokyo must go down or stay flat, otherwise Tokyo will not be able to carry it!" Ozaki said with a choked voice.
In addition to the capacity for treatment, epidemic prevention materials are also facing shortages. On April 13, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare notified that if there was no way to do it, medical institutions could use wines made by brewers as a substitute for disinfection.
The dean of a hospital for patients with new coronary pneumonia in Edogawa, Tokyo, said that because of the limited number of hospital beds, patients with mild disease must be transferred to the hospital. Source: Japanese Fuji TV video screenshot
Faced with this situation, the core member of the Japanese government's anti-epidemic expert group, Oyaru, lamented: "This is how the medical collapse started." "I have no confidence to do it well." His remarks were interpreted by Japanese netizens as a "declaration of defeat."
Earlier, the government appealed to the government to set up a hot clinic, Professor Shira Ogata, and virology expert Okada Harumi criticized: "It has long been said that a hot clinic should be established. Is anyone listening?"
Insufficient nucleic acid detection is another problem facing Japan.
"Our hospital contacted the consultation center and wanted to be tested, but the other party asked us to take a CT. But as long as it was not obvious symptoms of pneumonia, even if I thought it was a suspected new crown, they would not give the test, and even some member hospitals reflected that the consultation center's phone number Unable to get through. "When talking about the cumbersome process of applying for nucleic acid detection, Ozaki couldn't hide his disappointment.
Ordinary people want to do nucleic acid detection is even more difficult.
"The 38-degree high fever lasted for three days, and my throat was so swollen that I couldn't even swallow my saliva. I called the public health center and hoped to be tested, but the other party refused my request." This is the experience of a 40-year-old Tokyo office worker .
There are not a few who have the same troubles as this office worker. In February and March, only 964 people in Tokyo underwent nucleic acid testing. As of 12:00 on April 18th, the cumulative number of people in Japan receiving nucleic acid testing was only 91050.
Nucleic acid testing is "difficult to find." Japan ’s Constitutional Democratic Party chairman Masaka Masakaru questioned Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on April 2: "Are you intentionally suppressing nucleic acid testing in Tokyo?" Abe did not give a positive answer.
"Sakura" song Yanwu's March virus seems to be gone
Japan, which has been caught in the vortex of the epidemic, was another scene of the "Sakura" song-yan dance a month ago.
In March, Europe became the epicenter of the global epidemic, and the US epidemic also gradually deteriorated. In Japan, which experienced the "Diamond Princess" epidemic, the number of new cases in a single day has remained at around 50. Some American media even believe that Japan has completely controlled the new coronavirus.
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is also optimistic. The province pointed out on March 10 that according to expert judgment, the infection situation in Japan is still at a stage where it can "control the speed of infection."
In this case, the lives of the Japanese people have not been greatly affected. High school students in Tokyo took advantage of the suspension of classes to get together to practice singing, and Shibuya still has a large number of young people gathered to go shopping. An 18-year-old girl expressed optimism that “it is difficult to imagine that he will be infected”.
This answer seems to be a microcosm of Japanese society's optimism about the epidemic. At that time, Italy and Spain on the other side of the ocean had more than 5,000 new cases in a single day, and hundreds of deaths in a single day. It seems that the Japanese people do not need to worry too much about the epidemic.
On March 22, local time, the cherry blossoms in Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan attracted many tourists to stroll and picnic in the cherry blossom forest.
On the weekends of March 21 and March 22, Tokyo is sunny and spring is blooming. In places such as Ueno Park and Yoyogi Park, which are famous traditional cherry blossom viewing spots in Tokyo, the crowd is bustling, there are endless laughter, and picnics are everywhere. It seems that this is still the normal cherry blossom season in previous years, and the new crown virus seems to have disappeared. .
"Although I'm a bit worried, Ueno Park is so wide, I think it should be fine, so come and enjoy the flowers!" On March 22, a Tokyo housewife smiled in the screen broadcast on Fuji TV Said to the camera. She didn't wear a mask. Behind her were the cherry blossoms blooming in Ueno Park and the crowd of cherry blossom viewers.
Japan is full of cherry blossom laughter; outside Japan, it is full of debates about whether the Tokyo Olympics can be held on schedule. Since the outbreak in January, such controversy has been heard, but until March 19, Abe still insisted: "The Olympics will not be postponed or canceled."
The Japanese National Arena, which cost 156.9 billion yen, took three years, and was completed on November 30, 2019. It was originally planned to be the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. In addition, some athletics and football events are also planned to be held here.
With nearly 7 years of hard work and 8 new permanent venues, this Olympic Games not only contains the vision of the younger generation of Japan for the Olympic Games, but also bears the memory of the older generation of the 1964 Olympic Torch for the first time in Asia. Enough effort to make the world shine.
For the Japanese at the time, on the eve of the event, whether it was "cancel the Olympics" or "postponement of the Olympics" were incredible options.
In desperation, Abe finally announced his resignation on March 23, as many sports organizations in the world, Canada, Australia and other countries announced their "withdrawal." On this day, the number of newly confirmed diagnoses in Japan was only 39.
The Olympics forced an extension of the epidemic and suddenly came to an "important juncture"
The development of the epidemic is obviously faster than people expected. Due to the severe situation, Japan had to officially announce the extension of the Olympic Games on March 24. On that day, there were nearly 400,000 confirmed cases worldwide and more than 17,000 deaths.
Taking this as a watershed, the number of new cases in Japan showed a surprisingly steep increase.
After March 24, the number of new single-day additions in Japan continued to climb. After entering April, the average daily increase was more than 400 cases. On April 11, a new single-day record of 719 cases was set.
On the second day of the postponement of the Olympics, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, who repeatedly stressed that the Olympics will not be postponed, suddenly announced that the Tokyo epidemic was at an "important juncture" and called on the public not to go out on the weekend. city.
Three days ago, you could still enjoy the spring light under the cherry blossom trees. Three days later, you would suddenly consider closing the city? Former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama questioned on March 25: "In order to host the Olympic Games, the number of infected people was deliberately made very small, making people feel that Tokyo has already controlled the new crown (the epidemic), but it has just been postponed Just come out like this ". He also teased Koike: "Compared to the people's priority, you really have the Olympics priority!".
It is not just Koike who changed his attitude. Abe, who was also optimistic about the Olympics before and has repeatedly said that Japan does not need to enter a state of emergency, said on March 28: "The epidemic may expand rapidly at any time." Ten days later, Abe declared that Japan was in a state of emergency, and the scope of application was 7 prefectures including Tokyo, the capital, and lasted until May 6.
On the evening of April 16, local time, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe officially announced that he would extend the scope of the "Declaration of Emergency" to the entire territory of Japan, and will last until May 6. After the "declaration" came into effect, the number of people going out in Japan decreased significantly, and pedestrians on the streets of Tokyo were scarce.
The situation seems to be getting worse. On April 17, Koike appealed to the public not to go out during the upcoming May 1 Golden Week and defeat the "invisible enemy" together.
Golden Week is a long holiday around May Day in Japan. It is the early summer. A large number of people travel in this period every year, which is an important source of tourism income for various places. In the past, Golden Week, which was too late for "scramble" tourists, was voluntarily stopped.
The ever-increasing prevention and control measures have not calmed the public's doubts. Most people believe that Japan ’s state of emergency “comes too late”, and a series of accusations against Abe ’s “slow response” and “deviation from national sentiment” followed.
The emergency declaration came too late? Anxiety pervades
In the face of criticism, Abe stated on April 18, "A lot of confusion has been incurred throughout the process. This is my responsibility, and I sincerely apologize to the people."
Data Map: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. China News Service reporter Wang Junshe
However, Abe's apology looks more like a helpless act of being caught in the epidemic and forced by the local government. Compared with the performance of some local governments in actively formulating anti-epidemic measures, his emergency declaration seemed to come too late and too late.
Outside of politics, the impact of the epidemic on the economy has also been highlighted. According to the forecast of Nikko Securities, Japan will lose US $ 75 billion due to the postponement of the Olympic Games, accounting for 1.4% of Japan's annual GDP. This has been a hit for the Japanese economy, which has been at a low growth rate for a long time and wanted to rely on the Olympics to "fire".
After a boredom, there may be more serious crises. Japanese Foreign Minister Toshihiro Mogi predicted that the number of unemployed in Japan may increase by 1.56 million compared with the same period in 2019. The resulting impact may make the Japanese economic situation worse than during the economic crisis of 2008-2009.
According to an April 16 poll by the Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK), nearly 90% of Japanese people are uneasy about the new crown epidemic, an increase of 15% compared with a month ago.
Can I get a subsidy after the suspension of business, will I be infected, and when will my life return to normal ... For ordinary people, uneasiness is permeating every corner of Japanese society.
Among these people, there are Tokyo hoteliers who are trapped in the industry due to the delay of the Olympic Games, housewives who have been called "100 moms in one hour at a time because their children are suspended from school", and discriminated medical care People and their families, and even netizens who claimed that they wanted to blow up the Akita prefectural government due to a 50% reduction in income.
A fresh graduate from a Tokyo university may best reflect the current thinking of Japanese society. Affected by the epidemic, the graduate who had already found a good job was cancelled two weeks before entering the job. Because she had to repay the student loan after graduation, she said helplessly, "Now the only expectation is that the epidemic will end soon, but now it seems that it is still far away."