It's ingrained in Japanese culture that they often put too much pressure on themselves. They might think if they had put extra 120% effort, the Olympics would have gone as scheduled. But this is not on them.
Although it's only speculation, we wouldn't want another case of heartbreaking suicide[0] because of a Japanese blaming himself/herself too much.
[0] https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/japan-confirms-t...
and it seems the Japanese public is quite angry over Abe's willful neglect to save the Olympics. Now that the Olympics is off the table (ie, postponed), Japan can stop pretending that everything is all sunshine and sunflower.
South Korea's initial response was actually slow -- didn't restrict travel from China like many others did. The president declared a premature victory ("it would be over soon") and donated 2M face masks to China -- only to find the country in masks shortage the very following week. But their innovative testing efficiency (eg, drive-through, booth) and containment strategy set a good example for the world.
That being said, not that much testing has been made. The culture doesn't promote not downplaying or hiding your symptoms. Past couple of weeks, people have been relaxing. Cherry trees are in full bloom and so are the park gatherings. At the airport there are fingerprint scanners at the passport control - no way to sanitize your hands until after luggage unless you brought hand sanitizer. I could go on.
Tokyo's governor just mentioned the possibility of a Europe/China style lockdown: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-tokyo-...
Tokyo just picked up the rate significantly: https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/10900000/000612031.pdf
CDC just raised Japan's alert rate: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/warning/coronavirus-jap...
Internally, there are recommendations, and not much more. Bars and clubs are still going. Many offices are business as usual, apart from not demanding everyone in at 8:40 sharp to spread out commutes a bit more. Many of those expect to be able to return to that by April. (Just anecdata, my girlfriend happens to work at one such company)
Golden Week is coming up. For those who don't know, generally in Japan people only have around 10 holidays - but on the other hand there are a lot of holidays. It just so happens that in may several of those fall together and it's the one week every year where everyone goes traveling (there is also New Year's which is more focused on family).
I am not optimistic.
> @AbeShinzo, it ain't yer fault bro #tokyo2021 - @thieving_magpie
[0] Orientalist thinking is not necessarily racist; I'm saying this now before someone accuses me of accusing GP of being a racist.
Asian countries have a very ingrained sense of "face" and honor. Face in China and honor in Japan are very very important.
This just sounds like reverse Orientalism. Japanese culture might have a bigger emphasis on civic duties, but on a national level it's clearly a hit and miss: consider that WW2 apologists are still popular in some sector of Japan. (And I'm not trying to blame Japan here, I mean, most countries aren't much better.)
I can't help but think this is such a bizarre take.
"Japan" and the Japanese people aren't children. We don't need to reassure "them" of anything, as if their culture collectively precludes them of realizing that the Coronavirus isn't "their fault". As if they're too naive and caught up in same bushido notion of honor and dignity. A quick few moments on Japanese Twitter around news of the virus will show the intense xenophobia[0][1], with highly liked/retweeted posts directed almost entirely at Koreans and Chinese people, and praising Trump calling it the "Chinese virus".
I know Twitter isn't representative of the Japanese population, but I'm highly skeptical of the idea that "Japan" is down in the dumps, thinking they only could have done better for the olympics. From what I can gather, a large chunk of the Japanese population didn't want the olympics anyway.
[0] From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_of_xenophobi...
[1] A quick search of the trending tag "#ChineseDontComeToJapan" and the corresponding Japanese-language tag "#中国人は日本に来るな" and related posts (example of a popular anti-Chinese people post: https://twitter.com/mobirufosugang2/status/12391799224944803... - other posts in the thread emphasize the beauty of Kyoto without "Chinese and Koreans")
The people who were the most outspoken in Whistler against the Olympics became some of the biggest cheerleaders when the event came to town. When you're in the thick of it, it's difficult to not be amazed at how great the Olympics is.
Yes, every host country ends up losing money. Let's not forget, Japan just held the Olympics in '98, and had previously done so in '64, so they know what they are getting themselves into.
The Olympics really are a terrible waste of effort and resources for the host nation, and the host nation rarely, if ever, gets a positive return on it. Mostly, it seems only to serve to increase the prestige of some head-of-state, nothing more. In reality, it costs an enormous amount of money to build facilities that are only used once and then go to waste. The world would be better off designating two separate, permanent Olympics facilities, one for summer and one for winter, and just reusing those every 4 years.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_bid_for_the_2026_Winte... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Winter_Olympics#Impact_on...
If we held it in Athens (not sure if Olympia could support it?) for the summer, then have it rotate between countries that can host without massive infrastructure changes for the winter (NA - Calgary/Lake Placid, Europe - St. Moritz, Oslo Asia - Beijing, Pyeongchang).
(Note: I said CCP not China. The Chinese people are also very much victims of the CCP’s culture of suppression of information here. Wuhan never should have suffered as much as it did).