Some days ago, I found this comment from someone living in Japan.
But other threads further up pointed out that even with massive under-testing, it should be hard to cover up a COVID-19 outbreak if it spread exponentially as expected – there would be reports of hospitals being overloaded and having to turn away people with severe symptoms, so maybe something else is going on.
My other suspicion is severe cases will try their best to hold off on self-reporting given the strict government testing criteria and lack of awareness/panic.
This is one key way that Japanese and US society diverge - Americans are much less afraid to 'make a fool of themselves' if they believe they are correct/in danger. Japanese unfortunately, much more so and especially when given direct government directions.
And if they _weren't_ turning away life-threatening cases, you'd expect reports of hospitals stretched far beyond capacity.
There really aren't any other plausible explanations than "Japan actually has significantly fewer or less severe COVID-19 cases than expected". It would have to be an implausibly massive cover-up.
Look, I can and frequently do make a case for weak Japanese, strong Americans in various domains. But not about this.
If culture is a part of the reason for divergence of rates of infection, it's certainly in Japan's favour.
Remember, we are talking about society overall. Not what might benefit any given individual.
Don't look at politicians at face value.