Quarantine officers prepare to inspect an arriving plane at Narita Airport
Believe it or not, I’m not going to write about dangerously crowded Tokyo trains, amazingly inefficient Japanese banks, or the fashionably dressed dogs in Setagaya. At least for the moment, I have a new soapbox from which to complain.
It all started in April with a new outbreak of swine flu, now known as H1N1. Increasingly frightening reports in The Daily Yoimuri newspaper told us this potentially fatal flu strain was spreading wildly in Mexico and showing up in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. Health-conscious Japan suddenly was on top alert. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries instructed all animal quarantine offices to make sure pigs being imported weren’t infected, inciting a feeling of panic throughout the country. Perhaps it was no longer safe to eat pork of any kind! Things calmed somewhat when the Agriculture Minister assured the nation that no one would catch swine flu from eating pork. Yet people were dying in Mexico. Surely Japan was going to be next.
As a result, procedures were drawn up whereby all airplanes coming in from Mexico, the United States, and Canada would be inspected by quarantine officers before any passengers would be allowed to deplane. Some 500 rooms were reserved in hotels around Narita Airport where people could be quarantined for 10 days if they were thought to have swine flu. Despite these and other preparations, it was a few days before Narita Airport detected its first suspected case on April 30. This unfortunate woman was escorted from the airplane with a cloth over her head and a quarantine officer on either side of her as if she were being led to her execution! However, much to the dismay of the Japanese press, her flu turned out to be only a common strain. The hotel rooms remained unoccupied.
Finally, the diligence of the press was rewarded on May 8 when three cases were confirmed. Not only were these individuals quarantined, but people seated anywhere in their vicinity also were “detained.” Large, bold headlines screamed out the long-awaited news and accompanying reports sounded almost jubilant. Japan, too, had the swine flu! It was as if the nation had won a long-awaited prize! Suddenly cold and flu masks were selling out everywhere.
Then, on May 16, the first domestic case was confirmed in Kobe. All pandemonium broke out since the infected high school student had not traveled abroad to bring the flu back to Japan with him. By May 18, 130 cases had been discovered in the area. All schools in Kobe, Osaka, and their respective prefectures were closed, and it was reported that people were stockpiling food and holing up in their homes as if the plague had infected central Japan.
So? You may be wondering what soapbox I’m standing atop and why I’m writing about Japan’s response to the swine flu. Bernie has said it time and time again: Japan loves a crisis—so much so, in fact, that if there isn’t one, they’ll create one if they can. Tune in next time for the continuation of this story. It begins for us on May 16, the day we left Japan for a quick trip to the United States. For now, suffice it to say that we should have had better sense than to travel at the height of the swine flu scare.
It all started in April with a new outbreak of swine flu, now known as H1N1. Increasingly frightening reports in The Daily Yoimuri newspaper told us this potentially fatal flu strain was spreading wildly in Mexico and showing up in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. Health-conscious Japan suddenly was on top alert. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries instructed all animal quarantine offices to make sure pigs being imported weren’t infected, inciting a feeling of panic throughout the country. Perhaps it was no longer safe to eat pork of any kind! Things calmed somewhat when the Agriculture Minister assured the nation that no one would catch swine flu from eating pork. Yet people were dying in Mexico. Surely Japan was going to be next.
As a result, procedures were drawn up whereby all airplanes coming in from Mexico, the United States, and Canada would be inspected by quarantine officers before any passengers would be allowed to deplane. Some 500 rooms were reserved in hotels around Narita Airport where people could be quarantined for 10 days if they were thought to have swine flu. Despite these and other preparations, it was a few days before Narita Airport detected its first suspected case on April 30. This unfortunate woman was escorted from the airplane with a cloth over her head and a quarantine officer on either side of her as if she were being led to her execution! However, much to the dismay of the Japanese press, her flu turned out to be only a common strain. The hotel rooms remained unoccupied.
Finally, the diligence of the press was rewarded on May 8 when three cases were confirmed. Not only were these individuals quarantined, but people seated anywhere in their vicinity also were “detained.” Large, bold headlines screamed out the long-awaited news and accompanying reports sounded almost jubilant. Japan, too, had the swine flu! It was as if the nation had won a long-awaited prize! Suddenly cold and flu masks were selling out everywhere.
Then, on May 16, the first domestic case was confirmed in Kobe. All pandemonium broke out since the infected high school student had not traveled abroad to bring the flu back to Japan with him. By May 18, 130 cases had been discovered in the area. All schools in Kobe, Osaka, and their respective prefectures were closed, and it was reported that people were stockpiling food and holing up in their homes as if the plague had infected central Japan.
So? You may be wondering what soapbox I’m standing atop and why I’m writing about Japan’s response to the swine flu. Bernie has said it time and time again: Japan loves a crisis—so much so, in fact, that if there isn’t one, they’ll create one if they can. Tune in next time for the continuation of this story. It begins for us on May 16, the day we left Japan for a quick trip to the United States. For now, suffice it to say that we should have had better sense than to travel at the height of the swine flu scare.
