Japan and the Olympics

So I was watching something the other day and it was saying how there's a lot of resistance in Japan to holding the Olympics there. The reason is that they've only just begun vaccinating for covid and only six per cent of the population have recently received their jabs. My question is, and I can't seem to find the answer online,how come Japan are only beginning now? I would have thought they be one of the countries way ahead.

 

I'm assuming they'd locked down hard, like China and Singapore so cases were very low?

 

I believe they have a more rigourous testing procedure for new medicines which is why they are behind though they are catching up quickly.

 

Ungrateful bunch

 

what really got me was one guy saying he was taking his parents as far away from the games as possible. I hope as you said they do catch up soon. Can't imagine the uproar there'd be in most countries if the population were almost totally unvaccinated and the government were inviting a hoard of other countries to visit.

 

I think the Japanese didn't vote for brexit therefore they couldn't take back control as well as we Brits have done.

 

Seriously, or are you being a little sarcastic. Sorry, you didn’t expand on your post so not sure if you’re being serious or not

 

Lol not being British I think I'll stay right out of this one

 

Well if they dont want the olympics Im sure A western country would take it

 

well I'm sure they would...but then they're vaccinated. I can see the valid fears the Japanese have. I'd hardly class it as ingratitude.

 

Of course they wanted the Olympics, they certainly didn’t want the virus. I dare say a helluva lot of money will have been invested. Would you want this country to open up if barely anyone would’ve been vaccinated?

 

I heard on a podcast a few weeks ago that the Japanese as a race are fairly against vaccines and inoculations. So persuading their citizens to have the jab has been difficult.

 

Maybe being a little unkind by they are pretty insular people who are fairly suspicious of outsiders anyway. Throw into the mix the chances of foreigners bringing a deadly virus and it doesn’t take much to get them agitated.

 

I'll not comment on whether they are in general an insular or a suspicious people by nature, because to be honest I know very few Japanese, but let's suppose they are. In comparison let's take a country that's considered quite open, like the States. Not particularly insular, not particularly suspicious of outsiders, I can't help but believe that despite this, there would be uproar if their population weren't vaccinated and yet thousands upon thousands of people from a huge variety of countries were being admitted.

 

In Azerbaijan for example, a country which his just hosted a number of Euro2020 games, 20% of the people have been vaccinated. No unrest about this seems to have been reported anywhere I can see.
There's a large section of the UK that feels all our borders should be shut despite our vaccination rate and would rather the Euros had been played elsewhere.

If you have to test negative before flying and then test negative again a couple of days after arriving, I think you've pretty much mitigated the risk, but I'm not sure what testing etc is in place in Japan.

 

In Russia, which has hosted more matches than Azerbaijan, it's under 15%. Which considering that they are offering a world class vaccine to everyone for free, is absolutely insane.

 

Tbf if an Azerbaijani (is that the right term?!) caused unrest they’d probably be in prison before any media was able to report on it.

 

Japan is insular and suspicious and that is the very reason the vaccine rollout has been slow. They didn't trust the testing and clinical trials in the west and would only trust vaccines after it had been tested on Japanese people, in case side effects were different. This bizarre policy is why they are so far behind, because so many believe they are different to 'gaijin'. They are a cautious people with a huge fear of disease and pain. Good health is the number one priority in Japanese culture, above happiness or wealth.

They are such an insular nation due to their geography, many couldn't hugely care what the global optics of a cancelled Olympics would be, for them it's someone else's problem.

 

I'm not aware of the political landscape in Azerbaijan, but I'll take your word for it. But then I'm astounded by the slow take up of the vaccine in Russia as Merde Tete says. I'm waiting for the moment that Mr Putin makes it mandatory.