HOW JAPAN NAILED THE SCIENCE BEHIND CORONAVIRUS
When China reported its first outbreak of COVID-19, Japan went into high alert. After having suffered the 2011 earthquake and subsequent Fukushima nuclear accident, and seeing how fast other viruses had spread in the globalized world, Japan’s population and government were prepared for the unexpected.
On Jan. 16, 2020, Japan detected its first infection. Less than two weeks later, the government had set up a national anti-coronavirus task force. Filled with scientific experts to whom the government was ready to defer, it aimed at controlling spread through “implementing a series of measures flexibly and swiftly, thinking outside the box and firmly understanding the characteristics of the virus,” in the words of then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Dr. Hitoshi Oshitani, Professor of Virology at Tohoku University, was one of the most prominent government advisors and has been dubbed the architect of Japan’s COVID-19 response. He had deep insight into SARS from working for the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Philippines during the early 2000s.
“There are no textbooks or manuals
