＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49) on X
(Reference) Original article in Japanese
・連日のコロナ報道はインフォデミック！今回の緊急事態宣言は百害あって一利なし
<Added 2021/7/31> Economic Losses from State of Emergency Exceed the Economic Benefits of the Olympics and Paralympics!
Nomura Research Institute has compiled an estimate stating that “economic losses from the state of emergency will far exceed the economic benefits of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
The estimate states that the economic losses resulting from the application of the state of emergency to four prefectures, including Kanagawa, will amount to 940 billion yen.
Furthermore, if the extension of the state of emergency in Tokyo and other areas is included, the economic losses from a “fourth state of emergency” will swell to 2.19 trillion yen.
This far exceeds the expected economic benefit of 1.6771 trillion yen from the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, and the estimate concludes that the Olympic effect will “completely be canceled out.”
1. The “daily COVID-19 reporting” that has continued for over a year since last year is an infodemic that brainwashes the public.
(1) “Infodemic” is a neologism originally created by the WHO to warn people.
“Infodemic” refers to a situation where a large amount of unfounded information spreads rapidly. It’s a neologism combining “information” and “epidemic,” meaning an outbreak of infectious disease in a specific group or region.
This term was used in February 2020 by the WHO (World Health Organization) to warn about the rapid spread of misinformation and falsehoods surrounding the novel coronavirus pandemic.
(2) “Daily Corona Reporting” as an “Infodemic” Brainwashing the Public
The “daily corona reporting” that has continued for over a year since last year is a situation that could be described as a “corona frenzy.”
Not only is the reporting “overly biased towards corona,” but the way news and information programs present the information “emphasizes the horror of corona and variants, fueling public anxiety,” which is a major problem.
Various infodemics spreading online do not pose the risk of driving many citizens into a near-panic state.
However, since television and newspaper reports are generally more reliable than online rumors, their influence on a large portion of the public is considered quite significant.
I believe the large number of people in opinion polls supporting the cancellation of the Olympics is a manifestation of this.
If the reporting is excessively fearful of COVID-19 and its variants, or if it continues to urge self-restraint, it becomes highly likely to become a form of brainwashing that prevents the public from making sound judgments and leads to a state of intellectual paralysis.
In other words, it deprives people of the ability to calmly consider the balance between COVID-19 and the economy, social life, and other illnesses, leading to mental and physical health problems such as COVID-19-related depression, increased corporate bankruptcies, unemployment among non-regular employees, financial hardship, and suicides, stagnation of socio-economic activity and economic deterioration, and increased tax burdens on citizens and residents due to the enormous burden of compensation for business closures imposed by the national and local governments.
As shown in the table below, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s “Fiscal Adjustment Fund Balance,” which is equivalent to savings, plummeted from 900 billion yen to 80.7 billion yen as of July 2020, and is on the verge of hitting rock bottom.
The opposition’s simplistic, either/or arguments—prioritizing human lives (eradicating COVID-19) or prioritizing the economy—are having a negative impact on many citizens.
It’s not unusual for viruses to create variants; viruses desperately produce variants in order to survive. Continuing to instill fear by portraying “variants as dangerous” is not the correct stance for the media.
2. This third “state of emergency” is entirely detrimental.
It’s fundamentally wrong to think that “COVID-19” can be contained through “business closures,” “reduced operating hours,” “stay-at-home orders,” and “restrictions on people’s movement” imposed by a “state of emergency.”
Approximately 10 million people contract influenza each year (see graph above), and about 10,000 people die from it. However, Japan has never issued a “state of emergency,” implemented “business closures,” “reduced operating hours,” or “restricted movement of people” to contain the flu.
Seasonal influenza has various strains that circulate each year, but vaccines and treatments are available. Yet, surprisingly, the number of infections remains enormous annually.
Why is “COVID-19” being treated as a special case?
Furthermore, recently, Yoichi Takahashi, an advisor to the Cabinet Office, received heavy criticism for simply tweeting that “Japan’s situation is like a ripple compared to other countries.” However, a calm examination of the data reveals he was merely stating the obvious.
Countries like the UK, where COVID-19 has subsided to a similar extent as Japan, are resuming economic activity in earnest.
Instead of suppressing economic activity through misguided policies, Japan should now resume full economic activity in a “with-corona” environment.
“States of emergency” have become nothing more than a performance by politicians to show they are “working hard on COVID-19 countermeasures.”
I believe some citizens are beginning to realize that the “state of emergency declaration,” a form of emotional manipulation and hypnotic control by the government and governors, is wrong.
I expect that this number will continue to increase, and that soon, businesses such as restaurants that have been asked to close will say NO to the government’s and governors’ ineffective policies with no end in sight.
The government and governors should also review the effectiveness of the past three “states of emergency declarations,” urgently revise the wide-ranging “mysterious measures” and “excessive measures” they have implemented, immediately stop what should be stopped, and return to the basics of infection control: “preventing droplet spread.”
Currently, only a small number of medical institutions, such as large hospitals, are dealing with COVID-19, leading to “medical strain” and “medical collapse.” This is because COVID-19 remains classified as “equivalent to infectious disease 2.” If it were changed to “infectious disease 5,” similar to seasonal influenza, many more medical institutions would be able to handle it, and the “medical strain” and “medical collapse” would be resolved.
I believe that the most valid basic understanding of COVID-19 is based on the hypothesis proposed by Professor Yasushi Takahashi of the International University of Health and Welfare.