00:01:00 John Daub: Greetings, everybody. Hello, welcome to Tokyo. This is another Only in Japan Go update on the situation here in Japan. Yesterday, Prime Minister Abe gave an announcement saying that the nation is no longer under a state of emergency, which ends about a month and a half of this state of emergency. It was not really enforceable, but it gave people and governments the power to close certain things. So far, we've seen that Japan has maybe been a success, which we'll discuss in this news update from around Japan.

00:31:00 John Daub: I was going to wait until the end of the week to collect more data, but this release of the state of emergency just kind of popped up. Over the course of the last week or so, it's been really hard for Kanae to understand exactly what all of this means. I think a lot of people in Japan are the same way. Last night, Abe-san said that Japan's control of this has been a success and "the Japan model" has been a success. But I've been looking everywhere and nobody has really defined what this Japan model is. I guess it's just the way that Japan has done things. So I'll leave it in the comments below up to you: Do you think that Japan has been a success? What do you guys think on the other side of this?

01:31:00 John Daub: Basically, the state of emergency ended, but we are not going back to the way things were right away. Just like in a lot of other countries, Japan is going to be going through phases. According to NHK World, these phases will start from step zero, one, two, three. The first phase, the government plans to relax restrictions at approximately three-week intervals while evaluating the extent of infections and the risk of the disease spreading in each region. So these phases are probably going to go in groups of three weeks.

02:38:00 John Daub: Concerts and exhibitions will be allowed to take place with limited numbers of attendees. Professional sports, including baseball and J-League soccer games, can start playing from June 19th. This is really good news for baseball lovers in Japan—that means in less than a month, Japanese baseball is going to start again. The number of spectators will gradually be increased, so in the beginning, they're probably going to keep every other seat empty unless you're with a family member. Japanese baseball, Nippon Professional Baseball, will start on June 19th, as well as soccer here in Japan. It might even be at first an empty stadium, but it's just going to gradually increase.

03:39:00 John Daub: The government also plans to allow sporting events of any size to take place starting on August 1st, as long as crowd sizes are less than 50% of the facility capacity. They want to make sure there's no clusters. Karaoke parlors and gyms will be allowed to reopen on June 1st—that's about a week away from now; it's May 26th today. But they need to put measures in place such as controlling the number of customers. Pachinko parlors and other places will open; they're going to have to do one in, one out with social distancing. There's no actual enforcement of this, so it's societal pressure that really puts pressure on them, but some pachinko parlors are still open anyways—they were publicly shamed.

05:29:00 John Daub: Live music venues and nightlife spots such as hostess bars are asked to remain closed for the time being. Hostess bars and clubs, many of them in the side streets of Ginza and in Kabukicho and Shinjuku, will remain closed and to be announced—they'll likely be allowed to reopen on June 19th. I watched the announcement in the car coming home from Mount Fuji. We were really not sure exactly what the policies were, but we knew that the state of emergency had been lifted or was going to be lifted on Thursday. After we'd already left Tokyo Prefecture and driven around, we learned afterwards that it's not something we probably should have done. There's a lot of people, and we got comments from Jeff and his viewers that mentioned this as well.

06:30:00 John Daub: Thank you to all of our Japanese viewers who commented and left something saying that they were a little bit worried or disappointed or surprised or shocked. We heard the message and we understand—we just did not know exactly what the policies were, just like a lot of people. What does the end of a state of emergency actually mean? We went around a couple of prefectures, not exiting the car at all—we just drove around and came back, except for a stop to use the restroom really quickly and to stretch our legs at a waterfall in a town I used to live in 18 years ago. It's a beautiful waterfall, by the way. What I learned from that was that a lot of people are hurting very very badly. They cannot restart their businesses, and the businesses that we walked across that depend on tourism are still trying to sell things to tourists that aren't really there.

07:30:00 John Daub: We wanted to buy these hoshi imo (dried sweet potatoes) from one of the old ladies there. Kanae said we'll try one, okay? And so the lady found a way to upsell and get Kanae to buy two, and we were happy to do that. In fact, she threw in a couple of other snacks being nice. We felt really good about that. When we came back, thanks to Nosh Abroad, we ended up buying two takenoko (bamboo shoots) from a lady. We said we don't really need two, so we'll buy one from you, and then she said if you buy two I'll give you a discount. We ended up buying two—I think she really needed to sell those anyway. It breaks my heart that we can't travel and support those small businesses until around June 18th or so. So we're just going to hold off on traveling outside of Tokyo, but that doesn't mean that we can't bring you episodes from here in Tokyo.

08:45:00 John Daub: Things that we have to consider are guidelines that Prime Minister Abe said were a success. I'm guessing the Japan model is the clear messaging in what Time magazine laid out in an article two days ago: the three C's (san-mitsu) or the three mitsu. Avoid not just wear masks and social distancing, but it made it easy for the public to understand. Governor Koike of Tokyo explained what these three C's were and also used "stay at home" just like it's splattered on a banner. It was so easy to read for me and for a lot of people—it was different than kanji and katakana; she did it in English for impact, and it made people talk about it. The three C's are: avoid closed spaces, avoid crowded spaces, avoid close-contact settings. Hostess clubs are all of those things, so you're closed!

10:07:00 John Daub: Schools might be some of those things, but they're asking schools to keep the windows open. Nosh writes in: "I thought C was for cookie." I'm shocked that there wasn't four C's and they left the cookie for all of us to stay at home—that would have been messaging that would have resonated deeply into my soul. According to Time magazine, the experts credit that easy-to-understand messaging as one of the reasons why Japan has succeeded. And again, I'm asking you: has Japan succeeded? I don't know, because if you look at the numbers, look at the neighbors of Japan. Korea had like 11,000 infections and only 230 deaths. Vietnam had like 200 infections and zero deaths. Taiwan had seven deaths in the entire country, and Japan had about 800. So I think that maybe the Taiwan model was pretty good too.

11:15:00 John Daub: We can clearly see it peaked in the middle of April and it's gone down and now it's just trickling. Let me tell you the numbers for Tokyo just to put it in a little bit of context. That's a really good number to put in perspective why the state of emergency ended in Tokyo. May 22nd: three people. May 23rd: two people. May 24th: 14 people. May 25th, yesterday: eight people. So if you look at the chart, it is just a trickle now, which we can expect, and we will see every now and then a cluster of people where it gets into 30 people and they identify the cluster and they really lock it down fast. That's what's going to be happening through the summer until a possible second wave happens. I don't know—this is all very hard to predict, which gets into the question: when is a safe time to visit?

12:11:00 John Daub: Everyone keeps asking, "Can I visit Japan this summer?" I'm saying no, okay? Don't even consider it. If I can't travel between the prefectures, I don't think they're going to allow international travel to Japan. However, I said in the last update that Japan was mulling over a plan to give travelers to Japan subsidized costs and massive discounts, maybe up to 50% reimbursements on your travel, flight, hotel, and et cetera—a $12.5 billion U.S. plan to lure tourists back to Japan. It's still something that's being considered. According to the Japan Times via Kyodo News on May 21st, this $12.5 billion program could start in July. But if they're thinking about possibly allowing foreign tourists to come in July, and we don't have even inter-prefectural travel right now, I don't think they're going to allow people to actually travel to Japan.

13:36:00 John Daub: Why not? Well, because the international travel policy timeline doesn't really fit—like, I can't travel to Yamanashi next door, but travelers might be able to travel into Japan from the United States in July. So I think it's just wait and see. There will be incentives as part of a stimulus package for the travel industry, because this is a competition. What we saw yesterday in Fujinomiya was that the salespeople very much want to see travelers back, of course, because the stimulus payment was not enough for them. They simply can't close because they have to sell what they have, especially the farmers, and try to have some sort of revenue over the course of this. When we were driving back to Tokyo yesterday, the thing that impacted us the most was that people are really really hurting out there in the countryside.

14:34:00 John Daub: My mission for Only in Japan, when I can, is to try to encourage people to travel when they do to Japan, to get outside of Tokyo and visit some of these people who are selling things and maybe buy a little bit more than you normally would—like, did I need bamboo sprouts? But we got them anyways, and I think it made everybody feel better to have that interaction. This program is from Tabata Hiroshi, who is the chief of the Agency for Tourism. Let's keep an eye out. To get more information on this 50% off or travel incentives for Japan, just keep googling it once a week. Check out information or subscribe to this channel, because when it does break, you better believe that I will be doing an update on that. That's a game-changer if the prices will be subsidized for you to visit Japan.

15:45:00 John Daub: ANN News is also a good line of information. I use Kyodo News as a really good source. NHK World is an extremely good source—reputable sources; they're very protective of their reputation, so they won't just throw out information to get you to click. Those are Japan media sources—they may be a little bit more sanitized than CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and all the others, but they're also very pretty good with the information that they do give. It's more factual than opinions. Question: Does Japanese society expect the country to change after COVID, or do they just want to be back as if nothing happened? I'm Jack Lang—thank you for that.

16:47:00 John Daub: According to Prime Minister Abe and the reports that I've been getting, and Governor Koike—who by the way, I put a link in the description; I want all of you to go check this out—Governor Koike does every Friday on YouTube a COVID-19 pandemic update in English and other languages as well. For me, it's amazing—a politician speaking English from Japan feels really good. She's doing a marvelous job; it's not an easy job. She's speaking in really good English that's easy to understand and makes people who don't speak Japanese really feel at ease being a resident of Japan and Tokyo. Links in the description, guys, if you want to go and check that out—it's a pretty good update directly from the government.

18:04:00 John Daub: With Japanese society, society is not going to be the same. Social distancing, mask wearing will change, and the three C's are going to be a part of life from now on, at least until there's a vaccine or the number has been zero for a very long time. The supermarkets are still going to have vinyl at the registers; they're still going to be spacing for distancing. Physical distancing will continue. Mask use is not something that is popular in Japan in the summer—Japanese don't wear masks in the summer; it's really hard to breathe with masks in the summer. However, mask use is going to be prevalent in the summer. The greatest misconception is that masks are not to protect you from getting sick, but to add a wall of protection for droplets if you do sneeze—you're letting out 200 million droplets at 200 miles per hour.

20:42:00 John Daub: Wearing a mask reduces the amount of moisture droplets that get onto things and people and go into the air—if everyone has one, it reduces the risk. Right now in Tokyo, there are people going around asking you to wear masks and shaming you publicly—they can't arrest you or fine you, but if you're not wearing a mask, you'll have these old people yelling at you. I'll be wearing a mask, but I want to see if the mask police do their job. Department stores in Tokyo opened up and the staff are not just wearing masks, but also face shields. I think that's going to be compulsory as well, especially for people working at cash registers, because if they don't have a wall of vinyl, they should be wearing face shields to reduce the possibility of somebody sneezing or coughing on them—they're on the front lines.

21:54:00 John Daub: Technology has been booming here in Japan. Last time I showed you from Mie Prefecture a company that has created a booth where family members that are sick can stay inside this glass-looking coffin that has a pipe connected to a window that allows fresh air in. Another thing that's been in the news is a toothpick maker in Osaka innovating by making distance poles. They're about seven centimeters long, and there's a case of 120 of these toothpicks that you can use to touch buttons on an elevator or ATMs so you don't get sick. They cost 568 yen—because 567 yen sounds like "go-ro-na" (corona), so they made it 568. Only in Osaka would come up with something like that.

23:48:00 John Daub: Uniqlo, you all know who they are—they came up with high-tech material like their Airism, which is very light material. That Airism material will be put into face masks that allow easier breathing. Japanese don't like to wear masks in the summer—they're just really hard to breathe in. So Airism from Uniqlo will be making these face masks that are very easy to breathe in, that reduce and block and absorb some of the air droplets. I'm going to try to be one of the first people to get my hands on these Airism masks from Uniqlo. Nishikawa, a futon maker from Tokyo, is also making masks out of a polyester material that they use for making futon. They're selling them on Amazon, three for 2000 yen, with the Nishikawa guarantee. They look good, but with an asterisk: does not prevent you from catching it—it just reduces droplets. None of the masks will keep you 100% safe; it's about if we all wear one, it works.

26:33:00 John Daub: By the way, the WHO did say that Japan's model was a success yesterday—about four hours ago, they came out in a news conference praising Japan's handling of it. I know that the testing has not been adequate, and that's what the New York Times and foreign press criticize the most. But if we look at the mortality rate, it's pretty much in line. I really don't know what to believe, so I don't want to say my opinion if they're doing a good job or not. But the WHO says that they did, and Prime Minister Abe says Japan's model is a success. What do you think? Leave a comment below on how Japan's approach was. Keep in mind that Taiwan had only seven deaths in the entire country and Vietnam zero. But I believe that we have flattened the curve in Japan, and that's why we are now in phases where we can get back to work.

28:11:00 John Daub: Step three will be with everything returning, and I believe we'll be at step three by July 1st or somewhere in between July and August. Of course, this is all dependent on how the worldwide situation is and how the situation in Japan is. Two prefectures in Japan are not underneath the target: Kanagawa, which is Yokohama, and Hokkaido—they're still slightly above. But Japan's numbers are well below what they were just a month ago, so that's a really good sign. The question on everybody's mind is when is travel going? I've answered this 100 times, but it's going to keep changing week by week. It's not going to be this summer—mark my words. The chance of being able to come back for tourism this summer to Japan is probably very difficult for a lot of countries. Japan just extended the travel ban on 10 countries and will probably do so for a lot more.

29:42:00 John Daub: It's 100 countries banned right now, whether you have a visa or visa-free entry. Although 2900 tourists did come to Japan last month, which is a record low since 1964. Now, I will take your questions as the rain pitter-patters down in Tokyo right now. How can people think about coming back when the risk in their countries is higher than in Japan? Flying international won't be great—this is from Lisa. The reason is because not all flights have been canceled or refunded, so it's a mixed message. If you're going to be charged for your trip to Japan that isn't canceled, a lot of people are going to go because they assess the risk—if Japan is allowing them to enter, they'll go. That's what happened with a lot of Tokyoites that went to Okinawa over Golden Week holiday, and lot of people in Okinawa came down with COVID-19, which is awful.

31:21:00 John Daub: Prime Minister Abe's approval rating is down—I don't think any politician is doing an extraordinary job. Politicians all around the world are going to have to make a huge decision on the difference between the economy and the health of the country and finding a balance. A leader is elected to lead, and Prime Minister Abe's got a pretty tough job—I give him a lot of respect for that. We don't want any loss of lives, but we also want to protect our livelihoods. All the citizens of Japan are getting 100,000 yen (about $960) as a stimulus payment. Domestic flights in Japan are still going on, but not a lot of people are taking them, just like the Shinkansen is running. Don't leave your prefecture, but hey, the Shinkansen is still running—it's a mixed message.

34:04:00 John Daub: Abe said nothing significant changes until there's a vaccine. The phase of us having to stay inside all the time is over, and now we can go out and start to do things in a more educated way, which will help the economy gradually ratchet up. Japan's economy is the first industrialized economy in a state of recession right now, and it's a pretty grim look going into 2020 if the economy does not open at all. We're really worried about the state of the economy outside, the countryside, people in the tourist industry, family-run businesses that have been around for decades—and even domestically, travel can't happen. I'm really concerned about that. As soon as they say I can travel, I'm going to be out there traveling.

36:03:00 John Daub: Last question: You can ask on the Discord server—discord.gg/onlyinjapan will take you there; you don't need an invitation. Will you be on NHK in 16 hours? I did a Tokyo Eye episode for NHK World where I talked with Chris the navigator live via video software about what Kanae and I have been doing during quarantine. That's going to be on Tokyo Eye on NHK World sometime before the end of the month—they finished editing it a few days ago. Oh, it's in 16 hours? That's news to me—nobody told me. They turn that over fast. They'll be using videos of Kanae teaching her students and of me camping in my living room—you guys are going to be on it indirectly.

38:22:00 John Daub: That's all I have for you. Thank you so much for watching these updates. Why don't you guys give me a thumbs up if you would like me to do more of these? I did not plan to do one. I'll be doing a live stream on Twitch in about 30 minutes—I'll give a quick update on Discord and Patreon. Thanks, guys. Have a good day, have a good night wherever you are. Stay safe. Keep up to date, and if you're interested in that discount and all the other cool deals, keep googling yourself. But as soon as it's announced, I will be here because you keep clicking that thumbs up button—let me know that you really like this information.