Important! 5 points of fake news and fact checking related to the Japanese government’s handling of the new coronavirus

In the English-speaking world, people have the impression that Japan’s efforts to control the new coronavirus have failed spectacularly, and it’s now a country of the dead.

The basis for this report is a YouTube video posted by Kentaro Iwata, a professor at Kobe University who spent less than two hours on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, and it is a hoax built on a combination of truths and falsehoods.

First-rate media companies overseas that picked up this story without any independent reporting and verification is at fault. Although this report was hardly first-rate from our perspective, we will continue to refer to them as first-rate media in the hope that they will report the truth in the future.

Since the first-rate media companies overseas will not do independent reporting or verification, we will share the most-recent knowledge of the Japanese government based on statements made on the situation by doctors and evaluations by international organizations, conducting a fact check on the Japanese government’s handling measures.

If you read through this document and accept it, we hope you will share this correct information with others.

1. Kentaro Iwata broadcast the truth → He didn’t see anything, and his video was a combination of truths and falsehoods.

Kobe University’s Kentaro Iwata is thought to have posted his video on YouTube as an indictment grounded in justice. However, according to Yoshihiro Takayama, the Okinawa Prefectural Chubu Hospital infectious disease expert and Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare councilor who invited Iwata there, the statements made in the video are based on a large number of misconceptions.

First of all, Iwata was denied access by the Japanese Society for Infection Prevention and Control, and was only allowed limited entry with certain conditions as a member of DMAT due to Councilor Takayama’s courtesy. However, he not only violated promises made as part of the conditions for entry but also disturbed the command system on board, causing disorder at the site, and was kicked out in less than 2 hours. Also, the only part of the ship he visited was the lounge. In other words, Iwata not only didn’t have a good grasp of conditions on the ship, it was impossible for him to know what was going on in most of the areas. Councilor Takayama has pointed out all of these issues.

In addition, Takayama also mentioned that Iwata’s statement that the new coronavirus is more frightening than ebola in Africa or SARS in China is nothing more than a personal opinion. According to Takayama’s comments, when Iwata was in Africa during the ebola outbreak, he was in a completely protected and hygienic hospital, an environment that is not comparable to the ship. Takayama also disagrees with Iwata’s statement that there are no infectious disease professionals on board.

2. The Japanese government’s efforts to contain the Diamond Princess failed → The WHO has praised the Japanese government’s handling of the cruise ship. In Italy, where the guests on the cruise went ashore early on in the voyage, the situation is severe.

There are reports that the efforts to control the infection on the Diamond Princess failed, but these are fake news. On February 18th, Mike Ryan, head supervisor of the World Health Organization (WHO) emergencies programme, evaluated the Japanese government’s decision to quarantine the passengers and crew on board rather than allow them to depart to various countries without being tested as “clearly a preferable choice.”

The Italian government has proved this evaluation correct. In Italy, unlike the Japanese government’s decision, the cruise ship passengers disembarked after just 12 hours, and the infection has been spreading explosively in Italy ever since. There are already over 1,000 cases. In Japan, this number is currently around 250. Comparing by total population, Japan’s infection rate is strikingly lower.

3. The virus is spreading more in Japan than anywhere else in the world → Japan is the #5 country in confirmed cases, with fewer than both Iran and Italy.

English-speaking media reports give the impression that the virus is spreading rapidly in Japan, and the number of cases is second only to China, with around the same number as South Korea. However, as of March 1st, Japan is the #5 country in confirmed cases according the WHO’s official data.

China (80,026 cases)

South Korea (3,736 cases)

Italy (1,128 cases)

Iran (593 cases)

Japan (239 cases)

Singapore (102 cases)

France (100 cases)

In comparison to the closest country to China, South Korea, Japan has just 6% of the case numbers, with even fewer than distant places like Italy and Iran. Although there is no data, according to several reports, the number of cases in North Korea, located between South Korea and China, is thought to be much higher. If this is true, Japan is actually #6.

In addition, these figures should be considered in comparison to total population, so let’s use the data above to calculate that.

China (80,026 cases) / 1.427 billion = 0.0056%

Korea  (3,736 cases) / 51.8 million = 0.0072%

Italy (1,128 cases) / 60.48 million = 0.0018%

Iran (593 cases) / 82.36 million = 0.0007%

Japan (239 cases) / 127 million = 0.0002%

Singapore (102 cases) / 5.8 million = 0.0018%

France (100 cases) / 66.99 million = 0.0001%

Do you understand now? Looking at Japan’s infection rate in comparison to total population, it’s extremely low. The country where this rate is the highest is nearby South Korea. There are now over 4,000 cases in Korea, so the infection rate is getting even higher.

4. Prime Minister Abe ignored experts and handled the situation incompetently → His scientist-first response was similar to the UK.

There have been widespread reports suggesting that Prime Minister Abe ignored experts and handled the situation incompetently, but this is also fake news. The fact that he took action to rescue Japanese people from Wuhan faster than anyone else in the world alone is proof.

Prime Minister Abe convened a meeting with new coronavirus experts, gather Japan’s top infectious disease researchers. According to Kaori Muto, a professor at the Institute of Medical Science of The University of Tokyo and one of the attendees of the meeting, it was similar to the UK’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), and the strategy taken was to share the knowledge of the experts with the cabinet and then common people.

The following comment from Prime Minister Abe was also based on the information he acquired from this meeting: “The next 1-2 weeks is the crucial time for preventing widespread infection in Japan.” He is rapidly putting multiple policy measures into action based on their advice, including the announcement of temporary closing of schools, which came sooner than the announcement by the Italian government and was made based on the advice of the Japan Medical Association

5. Japan’s new coronavirus policies have failed → The battle is only just beginning

This has been mentioned already, but there are still reports that Japan’s handling of the new coronavirus has been too slow. This is a mistaken impression drawn from Kentaro Iwata’s video on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which mixed truths and falsehoods, and that impression has spread throughout the world.

As you can tell by looking at the World Health Organization’s data, Japan has shut out the new coronavirus extremely well.

In addition, as pointed out by Prime Minister Abe and the panel of experts, Japan is currently entering a decisive period in this crisis. Please accept the truth with no preconceived notions, and support the Japanese government in this fight.

If fake news causes unrest in Japan causing the efforts to control the disease to fail, Japan will become an infection spreading nation, and the infection will attack the whole world.

Please keep humanism in mind, and do not think of this as someone else’s problem. The current situation in Japan far off to the east should be not treated as a form of amusement, and we hope you will instead cheer for the Japanese government as they battle a disease that could affect us all on the front lines.

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Please spread this article, even to just one more person, and those especially sincere among you, please re-tweet it. We hope you will take part in the Japanese government and Japanese people’s battle against coronavirus in this way. The Chinese government considers the struggle against coronavirus to be the people’s disease control war. Japanese people are also accepting the situation in the same way.

When the war against coronavirus is over, we hope to celebrate our victory together.