Season 2, Episode 10

The following is an automatically generated transcript. There will be errors, so we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, if possible.

welcome back everybody to the real Japan

podcast bringing you the latest

headlines from Japan and I am one of

your hosts Kenzo and I am Ferg and

this week we have the coronavirus

roundup because what is a current events

podcast these days without at least a

little bit of coronavirus news and we'll

have some miscellaneous articles as well

for your listening pleasure

so yeah how's uh how's your week been

man it's not been too bad thanks this

this past weekend I went to see you know

I was mostly at home but I did take a

short trip out to go and see some forest

flowers called mr. Bassel I posted a

picture on a real Japan Instagram

earlier so usually in real Japan guys

check it out yes sir it's an interesting

flower it's called Mizzou Bashaw or

skunk cabbage in English I believe not a

great name it's not the super popular in

the West but it's actually quite like

people like it in Japan and they quite

often go to see it you know and in

spring when it flowers well I was for a

few weeks in around you know the

beginning of May usually so if you

haven't caught them yet it might be too

late already

but that little Park where I went to see

them you know it's kind of a little

nature nature reserve I guess you would

say we're still open but there's an old

one yeah there's another one nearby it's

not a park as such it's more like a

series of connected trails in an area of

the mountain you know and it's closed

because of coronavirus what do you think

about that

well because you're out in in the

countryside

yes sir but but around here in in the

big city

yeah all the parks have been closed or

for a while yeah safe for a few I don't

know I don't know like how they decide

but I mean they're a couple of parts

that are open so yeah the kids go go

play at the ones that are open but then

some are just straight-up closed and

then some are open but the parking lots

are closed and I don't know this is kind

of weird hodgepodge of and like you

never really know like until you go yeah

yeah like you know parts might be okay

to keep open but I guess we have to

prioritize health and safety don't we

yeah I guess so unfortunately yeah

although it looks like I just saw I just

saw the headline I didn't I haven't read

the the details but today I Bay is said

there's gonna be like one of those

expert meeting things tomorrow where a

bunch of smart people get together and

talk about when to lift the the

emergency State yes the good old expert

meeting yeah and apparently they're

going to announce with them maybe in the

next few days that they're gonna lift

the state of emergency the nationwide

one anyway yeah yeah did did you have

any news about your weekend or your week

sorry or shall we move on to the

Colonel's

me I went out once okay but not like out

out I went because uh the old lady

bought a car okay so I had to go pick up

the car but no

right that's about it yeah it didn't and

you know it's uh it's a nice car it's

used but she but she wanted because

right now we have this big SUV thing and

she's and she's not very confident in

driving it on Japan's narrow streets

yeah yeah yeah so so she got um just a

small compact car so that till I go you

know buy groceries and whatnot mmm yeah

I Drive a little compact car like a a kg

- it's a four-wheel drive model for the

mountains up here I would I would prefer

to have a you know a bigger car for

safety reasons but I car I have now

because it was you know it costs less

but it's a it is it does come in handy

sometimes you know having a smaller car

certainly oh yes certainly yeah because

when I'm driving around the the SUV the

big monster yeah me there'll be times

where like I'll want to go so you know a

certain spot but then the the sat-nav

will tell me to go down like these

really narrow streets yeah yeah and yeah

then so sometimes like they'll tell me

to like turn right into this you know

narrow street and always have to be like

nope not gonna fit down there so yeah so

I said I got to kind of pull over and

like try to find a alternative yeah I'm

using like the main streets yeah similar

for me often these country roads are

basically like one lane roads with

passing spots and Ryan Ryan right and if

it's two small cars or sometimes

depending on the size of the road a big

car and one small car like me in the

smoker you can usually get by but if

it's two big cars I think it'd be a lot

more difficult yeah that's that's always

what I'm afraid of is like they like you

said like it was me and like probably

you know it feels my car in your car

going different ways

then it'd be okay but if cars the size

of my car we're going down one of those

roads and trying to like get by each

other it might it might get pretty hairy

so yeah certainly certainly oh yeah good

you got your new car safely yeah yeah it

was the the streets were pretty traffic

was pretty bad I must say so I guess um

people aren't staying home that much

anymore I don't know yikes well shall we

move on to a quick roundup of careers

related news stories in Japan okay so as

of the day of recording Wednesday the

confirmed cases in Japan with 678 deaths

II what a Prefecture is still the only

Prefecture in Japan with no reported

cases of coronavirus what do you think

about that I think when before the

Golden Week holiday I was thinking that

some people were gonna go go home from

Tokyo you know go to visit family and

cause it's a spread but apparently yeah

hasn't happened although it's it takes

like don't just say it takes like two

weeks for the cases actually show up you

know because the incubation period on't

whatnot so honor maybe maybe in DX will

will see some but I hope we don't but

yeah yeah it would be amazing if

director can keep a clean record through

this crisis yeah I mean that's that's

some tourist dollars right there you can

you can use that for marketing yes yeah

the prefect use with the highest numbers

of cases as you'd expect the two largest

cities really toke

Osaka mmm with nearly 5,000 cases in in

Tokyo mm I mean you know it's what you'd

expect major major C yeah yeah yeah no

no no with the dense populations and

people commuting on trains and losing

that exactly as you alluded to there

have been less than 50 new people

infected or 50 new cases confirmed for

seven days in a row now and there has

been talk appearing in the newspapers of

lowering some of the restrictions in

place you know reducing the state of

emergency

particularly in 34 prefectures where the

situation is deemed not to be quite so

serious yeah do you have any views on

that do you think it will be good if

Japan can slowly start getting to normal

or do you think it's too early to tell I

don't know cuz you look at the other

countries mmm South Korea and and in

Germany as well that have tried to ease

back in to opening stuff up and then

they've had the number of cases jumps

again yeah and then then then you got

the US which just has no idea what it's

doing and isn't even seeing a decline in

cases but they're opening up anyway and

that's probably not gonna be good either

but I think but Japan's probably gonna

be looking at South Korea in Germany and

yeah how

yeah even after the number of cases gets

really like somewhat manageable

the minute you open things you start

opening things up then it jumps again so

yeah I would even what do you what are

you supposed to do you know yeah you

know in one piece of worrying news that

I read at least

thirty-five people from around Japan a

number of different prefectures in Japan

have tested positive for the virus again

after previously having had it and then

recovering so they were positive they

recovered they tested negative and then

two weeks later they tested positive

again of those 35 people 32 of them did

actually develop symptoms ha that's

quite worrying if that is the case if

it's possible to catch it more than once

the ministry of health labor and welfare

welfare did actually state that this as

a possibility in some very rare cases so

hopefully it is just SAP but well that's

kind of the that's the whole story of

the the corona virus really is that like

if you look at it from a numbers

perspective hmm like first of all your

chances of catching it aren't like that

hi yeah

yeah I all things considered right and

then if you do get it your chances of

like you might not even get symptoms

first of all and even if you do they

might be mild but then some people are

gonna have really bad symptoms and then

of those people most people are gonna

die well some people do yeah and then

then then there's this whole idea of

then there's a another really low chance

of getting affected again yeah

so like I wonder how it is for other

like viral infections because the the

common knowledge is that once you get a

virus and then if it doesn't kill you

then you won't get it again because you

develop the antibodies yeah but I wonder

if if there are like rare cases of for

other viruses you know that people get

it twice yeah I don't know I wonder yeah

well I'm sure the world will not fully

be getting back to normal until there is

a vaccine for Korea virus oh yes

certainly yeah that's the only that's

the only way that the things are gonna

get back to truly get back to normal and

by by extension it's still I think it

still leaves a a cloud over the Olympics

yeah yeah like are they really gonna be

able to have that kind of a large-scale

event in the absence of a vaccine yeah I

mean even with the vaccine because not

everyone's gonna be able to have access

to it yeah yeah then it might be the

case that they have a vaccine is you

know seems to work in 80% of cases but

they're still ironing out some of the

little issues with it yeah yeah and it

might still be enough to prevent you

know Japan holding the Olympics next

year yeah yeah you mentioned yeah you

mentioned about people moving around in

the Golden Week holidays and you know

sort of transmitting the virus to

different parts of Japan there was this

story about did you hear about this a

woman in well she you know lived and

worked in Tokyo and her family's home

was in Yamanashi or is in Yamanashi

hm-hm and she traveled from Tokyo to

Yamanashi then when she was in Yamanashi

she

received diagnosis that she had Karuna

virus you know she was tested after one

of her co-workers was diagnosed with

corona virus so then she went and got

tests and she was found to be positive

but then after she had the after she

knew that she had the virus she got on

the high on a highway bus and went back

to Tokyo yeah yeah which is uh you know

of course that's a stupid behavior I

don't think anyone would condone that

you know as soon as she knew the virus

she should have been you know isolating

and if symptoms develop go to hospital

obviously but yeah but there was she was

subject to a lot of you know what the

Japanese called bashing on you know

online on on Twitter and things

basically the angry mob went after her

the angry mob went after exactly you

know people calling it you know saying

if people died as a result her spreading

the infection it's equivalent to like

murder and terrorism and things

supposedly they found like her personal

information and released that all over

the Internet oh yeah prompted like

Yamanashi prefecture to get involved I

mean people go pretty crazy when they're

worried about their health and safety

don't they yeah yeah well at least you

didn't live in a I keep Prefecture right

they they just told everyone everyone's

names oh did they yeah yeah I'm just

briefly as an aside yeah I Chi

Prefecture which is where Nagoya is one

of the one of the bigger season in the

middle of Japan and they they have a

section on their website that lists

anonymous data Yeah right like here's

here's the number of new cases for today

and here's their like approximate

address right just so people have an

idea of like if there are a lot of cases

like in their neighborhood or whatnot

yeah but yeah I think over I think it's

about a week ago they whoever the person

responsible for posting this information

forgot to delete like the names I know

it's a baby of the people and they ended

- and you just straight up posted on

their website here's the names of all

the people to diagnose and I hid like I

think it was their names occupations and

I think they were grouped in like the

clusters they're called right yeah so

basically I'm guessing they just had an

Excel spreadsheet and before publishing

yeah like deleting the appropriate

columns or something and then they

forgot yeah whoever yeah they forgot to

delete the columns and they just do the

Excel she don't want their website yeah

Japanese government at its finest right

there yes sir yeah anyway and oh it's

just gonna say one final sort of

coronavirus related stories you know

obviously schools across Japan of

clothes there have been some that have

reopened already around seventy percent

of schools according to an article I

read are expecting to remain closed

until the end of this month until the

end of May hmm however around ninety

percent of schools are considering

shortening the summer holidays in order

to make up for time lost due to being

yes now yep so most Japanese schools

have summer holidays around mid-june to

late August and it seems like many

schools and considering rescheduling

summer holidays from you know early

August to late August cutting them down

to just two or three weeks yeah yeah

yeah it seems to of us like defeat the

purpose of closing schools in the first

place if that is true but who knows man

oh yeah I totally feel the same way it

seems to be a very short-sighted way of

doing things I think yeah

yeah but I don't know because the kids

have I got they've fallen behind on

their studies obviously but I feel like

there should be just adjust the

curriculum you know like I don't really

see what yeah what the because it's not

like by and large the plaint the playing

field is pretty level for for all the

kids because everyone's out of school

yeah yeah so it's it seems to me if you

just tweak the curriculum a bit maybe I

don't know me like maybe for your

history class you can skip a hundred

years or something right I mean yeah

yeah there just seems to be you know any

number of ways you could go about it

Oh certainly I think to keep it fair and

still allow kids to have to you know

have their time off and also limit their

exposure to each other yes certainly

certainly and I mean how much of what

kids are learning in school is is really

vital or you know absolutely cannot be

missed

yeah yeah yeah III guess a lot of it is

just the way that Japanese education

system operates right I mean I think my

understanding anyway is that the

national government tells the schools

like pretty much this long checklist of

things that kids need to know yeah you

must you must tick all the boxes yeah I

mean there's no there's no ifs ands or

buts about it at least that's my

understanding of the way they operate so

yeah they have to fit in everything for

whatever given for whatever grade level

yeah yeah I mean I just think you know

if you take into account the fact that

probably at least half

the time that kids spend at school is

doing things that are completely and

totally non-essential like you know

sports activities or assemblies or of

nonsense I'm not saying yes and assembly

is a total nonsense but they're

definitely not essential and then fill

in whatever you can of the essential

stuff with online working things mm-hmm

you know and then yeah maybe see if we

can actually make this all this solve

you know self isolation and Quarantine

and things if it actually if we can make

it have an actual purpose and all be

worth worth something if we do manage to

defeat this virus in the end day yeah

yeah it will all be for naught if if it

just keeps coming back over and over let

me end up in this weird state of like

closing and opening yeah exactly

oh well shall we move on to our

miscellaneous articles for today all

righty all uh let me pull up my article

here okay all right so this was a couple

weeks back mmm round yet around at the

end of April and the mayor of Osaka who

is um he's a controversial figure

I guess he's he's one of those you just

kind of speaks his mind I guess and

maybe sometimes he says more than he

should

yeah it doesn't always toe the line yeah

so his name is Ichiro Matsui and during

the so there's so the state of emergency

is still going on but the state of

emergency has been going on for about

the past a month or so and at a like QA

with reporters he made the statement

that

when people go shopping like during the

log down mm-hm

that the men should go shopping for

groceries okay

and his reasoning is that man when men

go shopping yeah like they don't

dilly-dally like the kid they buy what

they need and they're out yo dare have

the woman of Osaka been dilly dallying

is that what he's saying well yeah

there's women in general he said like

women take a long time to shop they're

there for it and assuming that is true

that if the men went shopping they would

be outdoors for a shorter duration so

it's safer yeah it didn't go down very

well on the Twitter fancy that did he

get bashed on Twitter oh yes certainly

yeah but but here's the thing

yeah here here's here's here's Kendall's

take okay that's Kansans take well so

the there are statistics our egg proper

statistics for published by a see this

organization statista okay which lists

which takes a look at all the the OECD

countries hmm plus China India and South

Africa so a good selection yeah good

selection countries and they list the

average number of minutes that men and

women spend shopping okay what did they

find

and what well they found the findings

were as one would expect I think in that

men

spend a significantly shorter amount of

time shopping oh yeah if you look at

Japan on average men spend 16 minutes on

household shopping per day 16 minutes 16

minutes well I think well I mean let's

say you um you go shopping every I don't

know maybe once every 2 to 3 days yeah

yeah and yet so that means because it's

so that means been between half an hour

to 45 minutes in the grocery store wait

yeah feels about right to me hmm

yeah like I gots a as a male right yeah

yeah I think so yeah but then here's the

thing so man is 16 women it's 37 minutes

one average per day did it have

statistics for Japan in the OECD numbers

oh yeah that's for Japan oh sorry sorry

yeah oh dear was second mayor was he

quoting this I don't know I'm pretty

sure he wasn't he was probably just

speaking anecdotally I'm sure yeah but

the the numbers the numbers back back up

his claims yeah is there any possibility

that those numbers because safe the men

don't do any shopping in the first place

or say if half the men don't do any

shopping if the woman you know assuming

it's a like a male and a female

household right if the woman in that

household does the shopping and then

they asked you know say a hundred

such households how much time on average

do you spend shopping yeah okay yeah I

see where you're going with this yeah

that's a definite possibility yeah only

might have this each man that does

shopping and each woman that does

shopping might have the same amount of

time if that makes sense

yeah yeah yeah they're really possible

yeah I don't know mm-hmm it's

interesting though isn't it yeah yeah

it's interesting and it's not just for

Japan like all the other like pretty

much for every country on that list the

the women spend more time shopping than

the men yeah yeah but but in any case

yeah he he got flamed all the way to the

depths of hell by the people on theater

yeah but again he's one of those guys

like he doesn't really care so yeah and

I don't think he apologized or anything

he's just like whatever man he's like

hey you just put on his shades and he

was like deal with it okay I mean

Twitter is very popular here in Japan

isn't it because it'll be the next story

as well but it's why do you think it's

so popular here people seem to like it

don't they I think and and this is a

topic I think we've touched on hmm not a

number of times in this podcast but the

I think the sense of anonymity

it gives yeah and Japanese people and

this is you know a generalization that

you know might offend some people but

just having lived here and seeing how

hmm their society operates um it's

difficult for people to voice their

opinions yeah yes in their daily life

and so I think a lot of these people the

Twitter is like an outlet for them to to

say what they want to say but aren't

able

yeah that's a good point I mean

especially I do again you know like you

said it's just my personal point of view

but I do kind of agree that people often

find it difficult to express their

opinions especially about anything that

could be taken even mildly you know as

in a controversial way yeah exactly yeah

I think that's why I like I feel it's um

mmm I think in the West like we don't

have any trouble yeah talking about

controversial topics like amongst

friends right yeah yeah but but over

here even amongst friends I feel like

it's pretty rare too good because

everyone's so like conflict averse I I

think yeah I think that yeah even among

friends like it's it's pretty rare to

talk about topics that might even have a

slight chance of the the other person

the person you're talking to having a

difference of opinion yeah yeah yeah

just just from personal experience I do

agree with that yeah man so so yeah

Twitter lets people be free it liberates

them from the chains of society yes ii

mayor feels pretty liberated anyway even

though you might be he might be a bit a

bit too liberated yeah my name out a

notch yes sir

but yeah there's really not anything

more to that story I just thought it was

it was interesting because first of all

he needs to shut his mouth but a second

of all you could say what he said was

true to an extent but Twitter don't care

yeah all the SJW is coming out of the

woodwork not the sjw's

oh yeah you know it man

well Biff before we get dragged into our

own Twitter flamewar and the real Japan

account gets gets taken down sure shall

we move on to the next story oh yeah

yeah I'm Aldo ate a Donald Trump says no

such thing as bad publicity well it

seems to work for him doesn't it the

United States it worked living who

really could argue especially in the you

know Republican primaries all the column

inches that went to saying how bad he

was what column inches they were taken

away from other candidates you know yeah

yeah exactly yeah well that's a whole

other can of worms I think we'll move on

now I hold another can of worms and this

is a Japan podcast as well not that's

right that's right

not armchair US commentary yeah odd cast

all right now well the next story this

week concerns something that might

appear at first glance to be a kind of

minor administrative law change legal

change but yep you know similar to the

last story this caused a huge amount of

backlash on Twitter that's still ongoing

kind of call me on guard because off

guard because I was very surprised when

I started reading about in the newspaper

and I was so like what is this and why

are people so mad about it but yeah yeah

really hit me by surprise too I didn't

just totally not on my radar until this

whole thing blew up on Twitter yeah it

seems to have come out of nowhere and

what it is is so Prime Minister Shinzo

Abe a and his government are planning to

put through a law to enable the

government to delay the retirement of

high-ranking public prosecutors

basically from

they that in itself is generally not

seen to be a problem they're also

planning to put this law through kind of

almost packaged two separate laws but

packaged with another law that will

revise the age of retirement for general

public servants up to 65 as well in the

same the same way and there'll also be a

kind of stipulation that you know public

servants or prosecutors whichever they

are have to step down from very senior

management managerial posts once they

get past a certain age hmm

now the part that is caused a huge

backlash on Twitter is it in the

prosecutors bill the act concerning

delaying the retirement of high-ranking

public prosecutors they are adding a

clause it states that the government

will be able to allow prosecutors to

remain in senior posts past the age of

the approval of the government and you

know there's a stipulation that if it

will seriously hinder the operations of

the public prosecutors to remove this

this person from their post but

basically it means that the government

can decide whether or not a certain

prosecutor stays in office passage of 63

Ryan Ryan Ryan now will go into the

reasons why this has attracted so much

backlash in a minute but just to talk

about backlash it really is a huge

amount of backlash online as we said it

caught me off guard um you know a lot of

celebrities have been coming out and

tweeting with this hashtag

you know saying that they oppose this

this change

koishi mas which means you know I oppose

the change in the law the hashtag when I

read the article which I think was

yesterday the hashtag had apparently

over six point eight million tweets now

to be fair a lot of tweets that is a lot

of tweets we do have to remember that

not every tweet is a person you know

there could be one person sending out

hundreds of tweets and there probably

are still a significant number one of

the celebrities that tweeted her

opposition that I think you are a fan oh

I could be mistaken but Carrie you Pamyu

Pamyu yeah yeah yeah I like her I didn't

think she got involved in political

things like this but I think so either

yeah I think a lot of the because a

number of celebrities have tweeted their

their approval of this protest yeah but

but yeah a number of them are not

typically involved in political causes I

don't think but or for whatever reason

they all jumped on this bandwagon

exactly another interesting aspect of

the opposition to this this amendment of

course you know opposition parties in

the diet have obviously opposed this but

also the Japan Federation of Bar

Association's you know basically

representing attorneys across Japan yeah

you know they stated their opposition to

these revisions in a message from their

chairman Wow yeah exactly

you know like I like I said in the

introduction to this story they are not

opposed to the idea of people working

until they're 65 and personally for me I

think it makes sense because people are

healthier for longer these days but yeah

yeah yeah certainly but you know they

said in in this statement that should

not be in the case of the public

prosecutors it should not be

down to a government decision it's only

the second time ever I believe that the

Japan Federation of Bar Association's

has noted in opposition to a proposed

law in this way so it's a very very rare

case the the Prime Minister was actually

asked about about this opposition to the

proposed amendment and he answered in

kind of a kind of a bit of a sort of

like nonchalant way he said you know oh

I I'm sure that there are people of many

different opinions about things that the

government doesn't or something to that

effect

good answer yeah exactly it's like a

non-answer

exactly exactly another member of the

government stated that it might be some

sort of organized effort that doesn't

really represent the will of people some

kind of oh it's a conspiracy big news

exactly hey where am I where have I seen

this playbook before exactly I'm not

really sure if there was a conspiracy

I'm not really sure why who would be

bothering to organize a conspiracy

against this kind of change to a law in

Japan about the age of retirement of

public prosecutors yeah and uh what one

thing certainly is just the timing is so

bad mm-hmm because there are more press

there are more pressing issues to deal

with I think that's one of the reasons

why people are so angry exactly home and

and whether or not this is true I like

no nobody knows but it gives the

appearance that they're trying to

shoehorn in their agenda because exactly

they're they're betting on people being

too concerned with other things

exactly yes exactly yeah it just looks

really bad maybe they got caught

red-handed or maybe it just turned out

this way I don't know exactly they seem

to be really pushing

to get this this amendment passed as

quickly as they can they're aiming to

get it through the Lower House this week

you know according to that statement

that I mentioned from the Japan

Federation of Bar Association's they

might only be like a few hours really

for debate on this issue yeah which is

not sufficient for an issue weathers

this many for an amendment where there's

this many potential issues which I'll go

into in a minute you know the the Prime

Minister Shinzo Abe acclaimed that part

of the reason they're pushing it through

so quickly is because they need to allow

time for the the knowledge of this law

to you know to spread and for people of

time to have time to adjust and to

ensure that local governments have time

to prepare mm-hmm you know I I agree

with what you said the this just seems

like such bad timing for this but on the