Hi! Kirk here. I hope what I’m about to say doesn’t cause excessive concern but I think that at least moderate concern is warranted regarding the low levels of COVID-19 testing in Japan.
If you go to the Wikipedia article on COVID-19 testing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_testing
you can scroll down to see how Japan’s testing levels compare with those of other countries. They are quite low. Even the United States has managed to test lots of people, though their slow start was pointed to as one cause of the current catastrophe there.
If I had only been paying attention to the Japanese media, I don’t think I would have become concerned about testing levels because the issue doesn’t come up much on the Japanese news shows I watch. It was listening to news reports from the U.S. that got me thinking about how many tests were being conducted.
I suspect that much of the media here is actually avoiding the issue – not wanting to cause concern by criticizing the government’s approach. Here’s one example. YAMANAKA Shinya is a highly respected stem cell researcher and a winner of the Nobel Prize. The Japanese media is usually pretty good about covering him but, for some reason, much (not all, of course) of the media seems to be ignoring his calls for more testing. If you search for news articles about him in English you may find this article about his research but nothing about his calls for more PCR tests for the new corona virus:
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Science/Yamanaka-to-distribute-iPS-cells-for-testing-this-year
The Japanese government has said they will increase testing:
Still, I’m concerned that, for whatever reason, Japan has been lax about testing and that that may not bode well for the future.
But I’m still glad to be here and not in my country of origin, the USA. The low numbers of deaths means that the situation here is a good deal better than that in most of the US.
https://scienceportal.jst.go.jp/news/newsflash_review/newsflash/2020/04/20200408_01.html
