Gathered in a press conference room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on May 18 were senior officials of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and the Cabinet Secretariat, who were unfamiliar with the venue in ordinary times. The press conference was held so the government could brief foreign media reporters stationed in Japan about its measures against the new coronavirus.
A reporter asked during the online press conference why there has been only a small number of infections and very few deaths from COVID-19 in Japan despite there being no lockdown, including the closing off of cities, with such a small number of PCR testing conducted.
To this question, Yasuyuki Sahara, senior assistance minister for global health at the health minister's Secretariat, quoted such reasons that many people accepted the request to practice self-restraint from going out. The reporter listened attentively to Sahara's answer, which was simultaneously interpreted.
These press conferences started early February. A total of 15 such conferences have been held so far, as the government came under fire from foreign countries over its handling of the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship put under quarantine off the shore of Yokohama after clusters of infections were discovered aboard.
At a press conference held on June 1, Shigeru Omi, the Chair of the Advisory Committee on the Basic Action Policy, was also present, explaining Japan's counter-cluster measures. Yet, there strongly remains such a voice saying, as BBC News of the United Kingdom reported on April 30, "Without more testing it is impossible to know" the whole picture of coronavirus infections.
In dealing with the clusters that occurred aboard the cruise ship, there were things happening that the government had not anticipated. There were crew members and passengers from 56 countries and regions aboard the vessel. As they had apparently grown discontent with being confined inside the ship, some passengers started communicating directly with media from their home countries via social media.
"If the messages transmitted by passengers are not true, and if we do not deny such messages, it would become a serious matter."
Such a concern held by an official in charge at the foreign ministry proved true. U.S. media blamed responses made by Japan as an "infringement of human rights," while French media criticized harshly by calling the cruise ship "a floating jail." As if to make a further assault on Japan's response, Kentaro Iwata, a professor at Kobe University who boarded the cruise ship, criticized on Feb. 18 the Japanese government's measures to prevent infections, via YouTube, an online video-sharing platform, evoking a massive reactions from abroad.
Even at the stage when infections of the coronavirus began spreading in Japan, response from the government's public relations offices tended to be slow.
The New York Times in the United States on Feb. 26 carried an opinion written by Koichi Nakano, a professor at Sophia University, who said, "The Japanese government's response to the coronavirus outbreak has been staggeringly incompetent." Masato Ohtaka, press secretary for the foreign ministry, responded to Nakano's opinion, in his letter contributed to and carried by the New York Times, saying "The government has taken bold and timely measures such as restrictions on large-scale events and closure of schools."
In March, CNN TV in the United States and the Korean JoongAng Daily in South Korea reported the number of infected cases in Japan, on the basis of a remark made by a team member tasked with counter-cluster measures at the health ministry. As his remark was related to an estimate made for Hokkaido, the health ministry refuted, by saying "These reports were apparently wrong."
For Japan, it is institutionally impossible to enforce high-handed measures against infections like China, forceful measures such as the so-called "lockdown," including the closing off of cities, as taken in countries in Europe and North America. It will be hard for people in foreign countries to understand the Japanese style of infection containment, with people responding to the administrators' request to practice self-restraint, without a detailed explanation.
An official related to the foreign ministry believes that "Rather than the fact that Japan's policy has been criticized [by foreign countries], they [people in foreign countries] have harbored misgivings over the fact that Japan has not clearly stated its policy." Within the foreign ministry, there is even such a voice saying, "It took time for us to get in sync with the health ministry, which has attached too much importance to relevant data, been hesitant in giving in-depth explanations, and been unfamiliar with transmitting information to foreign countries."
Learning lessons from the response taken to deal with the cruise vessel, the foreign ministry is trying to make an effort in taking measures to deal with social media, together with those to deal with traditional media. The government has incorporated 2.4 billion yen for analysis of information on social media and for transmission of information to them in the supplementary budget for this fiscal year, so as to boost the transmission of information related to Japan's measures against infections and its international contribution.
Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said, "We would like to have the correct information about Japan's efforts transmitted globally."
The government's efforts in exploring ways to realize the "effective transmission of information abroad" will continue.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
