Weekly Update: News on Japan & the Netherlands – Week 12, 2021

Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko said, “I want everyone to recognize that we need to avoid a rebound of infections. I am asking for continued cooperation to prevent a fourth wave.”

There are concerns about places where people gather to view cherry blossoms. At Tokyo’s Ueno Park, temporary fences have been set up to prevent outdoor parties. Cherry trees had been lit up at night in the past, but not this year. Local governments will maintain their requests that restaurants and bars close early, and that companies allow employees to work remotely.

Health minister Tamura Norihisa said the government will continue measures to prevent a resurgence after the state of emergency. He also said, “We’ll ask officials to set up PCR testing centers in urban areas such as train stations in order to detect any signs of an outbreak. Through such measures, we will work to prevent an explosive increase in case numbers.

Tamura also touched on the possibility of AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines being approved by the end of May. They are currently being screened for use in Japan. Inoculations with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine started last month with healthcare workers getting first priority in the national vaccination program.

The minister says he is considering asking all travelers from abroad to remain at their accommodation and undergo tests there. Currently, that is only required of travelers from Europe and other countries where variants of the virus have been confirmed.

More than 1,100 new positive tests were reported across Japan on Sunday. That brings the total to more than 457,000 since the pandemic began.

The government’s second state of emergency, initially declared for the Tokyo metropolitan area in early January but expanded to 11 prefectures within a week, was fully lifted Sunday after the number of new virus cases fell significantly.

But amid concerns over a potential “fourth wave” of infections as the decrease in new cases levels off, the request for dining establishments to shorten hours will remain until the end of March, although the 9 p.m. closing time now sought is an hour later than under the emergency.

For households whose income has dropped sharply due to the pandemic, the government has earmarked 341.0 billion yen to extend a program providing no-interest loans of up to 200,000 yen per household for three months to the end of June. Another 217.5 billion yen has been allocated to offer cash handouts of 50,000 yen per child to child-rearing households living in poverty.

The government has almost used up the 11.50 trillion yen it set aside in reserve funds for the current fiscal year through March for use in response to the pandemic, with Tuesday’s cabinet decision leaving just 508 billion yen remaining.

Other than the use of reserve funds, the cabinet also decided to increase financing measures for cash-strapped businesses in the food and accommodation service sectors, such as enabling government financial institutions to lend money alone, instead of co-financing with private institutions in principle.

“As the government, we’ll protect jobs, be there for those who keep their business running, and give detailed responses,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said at a meeting of relevant ministers.

Those who do not have a smartphone, or who are using an outdated model that can’t run the apps, will be required to rent a phone from the airport. In addition to showing that the apps are installed and running, inbound travelers will also be required to sign a written pledge to comply with the protocols. Failure to do so can result in public publishing of the violator’s name and, in the case of foreign nationals, deportation, including the revocation of residence status for foreigners living in Japan on work or study visas.

The requirement is expected to be expanded to entrants in Japan via other airports in the near future. Besides the new policy, Japan is also considering requiring all inbound travelers to undergo a test for new variants of the coronavirus, health minister Tamura Norihisa said Sunday.

Under the current system, all people arriving from 24 designated countries where coronavirus variants are known to exist are required to take additional testing three days after entering Japan. Authorities also carefully monitor whether they are strictly observing a 14-day self-quarantine period.

While speaking of the need to tighten border controls on an NHK television program, Tamura also said the government is considering contracting private security companies to monitor those who should be self-quarantining at their accommodation to make sure they adhere to the rules.

On Saturday, Japan tightened border controls on travelers from seven additional countries, mainly from Europe. Japanese and other nationals who have recently traveled through Estonia, the Czech Republic, Pakistan, Hungary, Poland, Luxembourg and Lebanon fall under the scope of the system.

As the government has decided to end the COVID-19 state of emergency in the Tokyo region on Sunday, the minister also said, “It is important to avoid activities with a high risk of infections.”

On the same TV program, Omi Shigeru, head of the government’s COVID-19 subcommittee, warned that “a rebound in infections is possible to occur in the next one or two months.” Omi said it is vital to prevent the further spread of the virus until people aged 65 or older in Japan are being vaccinated, with that group eligible to start receiving shots in mid-April.

The restaurant operator, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Second Section, is seeking only 104 yen in damages (less than €1), saying it is looking to shine light on the impact of government-enforced anti-virus measures that it believes excessively hamper business operations and people’s lives.

The plaintiff’s lawyer Kuramochi Rintaro said imposing blanket restrictions without offering evidence that restaurants are a source of infections violates the freedom of business guaranteed under the Constitution.

The lawyer also argued that Tokyo Gov Koike violated a duty of care when she issued the order. Koike told reporters on Monday that the Tokyo government has been “going through the procedure carefully in line with the revised law.”

Restaurants operated by the company were among 2,000 establishments that did not comply with a request to close by 8 p.m. under a COVID-19 state of emergency issued in early January in the Tokyo area and other prefectures, according to the plaintiff’s side.

The order “took aim” at the company which publicly voiced its intention to disobey the request and “violated the equality under the law and freedom of expression,” the plaintiff said.

Global Dining said in a release on 7 January, “We cannot comply with the request to shorten business hours, given the current (insufficient) subsidies and support from authorities.”

Of the 2,000 establishments, the Tokyo metropolitan government last Thursday ordered 27, of which 26 were Global Dining outlets, to close by 8 p.m. until the lifting of the emergency declaration at the end of Sunday. The company complied with the order.

Global Dining’s president, Hasegawa Kozo, said at a press conference Monday that his company has been taking precautionary measures at its restaurants including requiring staff to wear masks, wash hands regularly and practice social distancing. “No clusters have been found in our restaurants,” he added.

As the court could potentially rule on whether the anti-virus measure is unconstitutional, the central government’s top spokesman Kato Katsunobu said at a press conference Monday that the order falls within the Constitution as its purpose and restrictions were “reasonable.”

While a new law will be needed before same-sex marriages can actually take place, which could take some tim, the plaintiffs’ lawyer called the ruling “revolutionary”, while LGBT activists deemed it life-changing.

“Its value is absolutely measureless,” said 44-year old Matsunaka Gon, director of activist group Marriage for All Japan and representative of Pride House Tokyo. “Until the ruling was announced, we didn’t know this was what we’d get and I’m just overjoyed.”

While Japanese law is considered relatively liberal by Asian standards, social attitudes have kept the LGBT community largely invisible in the world’s third largest economy. Taiwan became the first place in Asia to legalize same-sex marriages in 2019.

Under the current rules in Japan, same-sex couples are not allowed to legally marry, cannot inherit their partner’s assets – such as the house they may have shared – and also have no parental rights over their partners’ children.

Though partnership certificates issued by individual municipalities help same-sex couples to rent a place together and have hospital visitation rights, they still don’t give them the same full legal rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples.

“Sexual orientation cannot be changed or selected by a person’s will,” the ruling said. “It is discriminatory treatment… that they cannot receive even some of the legal benefits that heterosexuals do.”

The Sapporo District Court threw out the demand for damages by the six plaintiffs – two couples of men and one of women – who had asked that the Japanese government pay 1 million yen each in acknowledgment of the pain they suffered by not being able to legally marry.

But Kato Takeharu , the lawyer of the plaintiffs, called the verdict overall “revolutionary”, while urging parliament to quickly start working on a law to make same-sex marriage possible. “We praise this ruling for taking in the plaintiffs’ earnest appeals,” the lawyer told a news conference.

Similar cases are currently being heard in four other courts around Japan and this ruling may indirectly influence their outcome. Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu told a news conference he had not read the ruling in detail but that the government would “carefully watch” the outcomes of the other court cases.

While homosexual sex has been legal in Japan since 1880, social stigma means many have yet to come out even to their families. The Japanese ruling also came just days after the Vatican said priests cannot bless same-sex unions.

Some in the business world say Japanese rules not allowing same-sex marriage hurt the country’s competitive advantage, by making it difficult for companies, especially foreign companies, to attract and keep highly-skilled labour in an increasingly international economy. Tokyo residents also welcomed the ruling, saying it was about time things changed.

“Japan has always been conservative, but these days things are becoming more open,” said 60-year old dentist Enomoto Kyoko. “I think it will open up a lot more from now on.”

An agency official said at a press conference no significant change in the sea level caused by the quake was observed but warned that quakes of a similar size could occur over the next week or so.

Its focus, about 20 km off the Ojika Peninsula in Miyagi, was relatively close to that of the magnitude-7.3 temblor in mid-February which rocked Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures and injured over 150 people. It also came just over a week after northeastern Japan marked the 10th anniversary of the devastating quake and tsunami which triggered the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

There have been two reports of injuries in Miyagi Prefecture, according to a local fire department, but no structural damage has been reported. Television footage on public broadcaster NHK showed no abnormalities at coastal or urban areas in Miyagi where the quake hit hardest.

The quake registered upper 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale in parts of Miyagi, smaller than the mid-February quake which recorded upper 6 in Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. It was also felt in Tokyo.

No abnormalities were found at nuclear plants in eastern and northeastern Japan, according to their operators, while JR East said it temporarily suspended operation of shinkansen bullet train services in the region.

Evacuation orders were issued to some 11,000 residents in coastal areas in Miyagi but the orders were lifted later, according to the prefectural government. Following the quake, a fire broke out at a factory in Miyagi’s Ishinomaki but was soon extinguished, according to the local fire department.

Shinji Toda, professor of geophysics at Tohoku University, said the latest earthquake could have caused large tsunami if its focus had been shallow.

More patients in hospitals, the R-value is above 1: figures that prevent the current measures from being abandoned, Rutte emphasizes. The measures will therefore be extended for three weeks, until 20 April. However, there is one small change: the curfew will be from 22:00 instead of 21:00.

“In concrete terms, this means that from Wednesday, 31 March, the curfew will apply from 22:00 to 4:30 in the morning. Everything else will remain the same.” Rutte said it was wise to leave the curfew for one hour because of the approaching summer time. This is done on the advice of, among others, mayors and the police, said the prime minister.

“It may prove necessary that even more measures are needed. But if the numbers are better than expected, the easing of the rules could also be reconsidered.” The prime minister was referring to the opening of the terraces and (partly) higher education.

Due to the current situation, the cabinet also sees no other choice than to extend the current travel advice until 15 May., so the rule remains: do not travel abroad. “The cabinet cannot say anything about the summer holidays. Rutte does emphasize that he has” good hope “that more will be possible.

The official information on the national government’s own web pages will also be adjusted and a warning will appear in the package leaflet of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Healthcare providers are updated on how to inform patients.

Outgoing Minister of Health Hugo de Jonge stated during an online meeting with the press on Thursday that the ministry had received no signals from people who doubt the vaccination. After several Dutch media stated that they did hear concerns, De Jonge did not rule out the possibility that the ministry might miss such signals.

“I do not deny that these types of signals exist. We receive thousands of responses every day on social media and via e-mail. It could well be that there was a concern,” said the minister, who also indicated that he understood the concerns of the Dutch.

De Jonge already addressed the vaccination doubters on Thursday and said that if their appointment was canceled, they must join “at the back of the queue”. He called on the Dutch to take the vaccine, because the chance of a serious disease course after infection is much greater than a possible serious side effect of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The AstraZeneca vaccine has been the subject of much discussion recently. The injection process with the drug was halted for two weeks on the advice of the Medicines Evaluation Board (MEB), after reports from European countries had appeared of people under the age of 50 who developed serious thrombosis and a shortage of platelets after vaccination.

Further research by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) showed that the vaccine can still be used safely, because the chance of these symptoms is so small that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. In a group of twenty million vaccinees in Europe, ‘only’ 25 reports had been received. As a result, a link between thrombosis and the vaccine could not even be established.

It was then decided to put the vaccine back into use immediately. The injection process will start next week because hundreds of thousands of appointments have to be rescheduled.

The ministry repeats in conversation with NU.nl that the AstraZeneca vaccine has been found to be safe and effective by experts. “The benefits in terms of protection against the virus are many times greater than the risks of these symptoms,” said the spokesman. This lecture is supported by European and Dutch experts.

The pathfinders will meet with the party leaders in order of the number of seats obtained in the parliamentary election, from largest to smallest. On Monday, they’ll meet with VVD leader Mark Rutte, D66 leader Sigrid Kaag, PVV leader Geert Wilders, CDA leader Wopke Hoekstra, SP leader Lilian Marijnissen, PvdA leader Lilianne Ploulmen, GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver, and FvD leader Thierry Baudet. The remaining party leaders will follow on Tuesday.

The expectation is that Jorritsma and Ollongren will publish their findings by no later than Tuesday next week. To get a majority in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, the coming coalition will need to consist of at least four parties, like the departing Rutte III cabinet. The Tweede Kamer will debate the pathfinders’ report on Wednesday. After that one or more “informants” will be appointed to start the next phase of the cabinet formation.

Jorritsma said last week that she hoped the new cabinet will be formed by the summer. After the previous parliamentary election in 2017, the formation process took over seven months.

Visitors were tested in advance and some had to take an extra quick test when entering the site. Anyone who tested positive for corona was not allowed on the site. Festivalgoers were then divided into three groups and equipped with a device with which their movements and contact moments were monitored.

That box kept track of who a visitor has contact with, how long that was and at what distance. The researchers will try to deduce an average number of contacts from this data.

This weekend, a new government corona app was also tested at the Fieldlab experiments which visitors can use to demonstrate that they have recently been tested negative. After a negative test, the visitors receive a code that they can enter in the app. It generates a QR code that is scanned at the entrance of the festival.

More than 6,200 people participated in the previous six fieldlabs. There were 41 of them who tested positive asymptomatically beforehand, meaning that they had contracted the coronavirus but showed no symptoms. They were not allowed to participate in the event.

Afterwards, five people were tested positive, says medical microbiologist Andreas Voss, lead researcher of the Fieldlab program. It is difficult to say whether those five were contaminated during one of the field lab events, said the researcher. According to him, it is also conceivable that the participants were infected at home afterward, for example, by housemates.

Voss is positive about the results so far. According to the researcher, pre-testing is therefore crucial when society will soon be more open again. “It gives us the opportunity to make more things possible, even before everyone in the Netherlands has been vaccinated.”

According to Voss, with pre-testing in the summer, it should be possible to organize concerts, theater, and cinema visits on a limited scale with certain measures. “If the numbers are going down again and the threat of the third wave is less, then this should certainly be safely possible.”

Voss is a bit more skeptical about festivals; the investigation has yet to show whether this is safely possible. A festival, says Voss, is riskier because of the large number of movements and contact moments. After all, more contact moments mean a greater chance of contamination. On the other hand, according to the researcher, it does help that festivals are often in the open air and there is, therefore, a lot of ventilation.

Previous fieldlab tests have taken place during two concerts in the Ziggo Dome, a theater performance by Guido Weijers, a conference, and at football games. The researchers expect to publish the results in three weeks.

The police acted after protesters in the square were warned that the protest again did not comply with the corona measures and that it should not be held there. “The group did not heed repeated warnings from the police to leave,” the municipality said. Ultimately, the water cannon was used to get the demonstrators moving.

After the demonstration ended, a group of approximately fourteen hundred people marched to the Leidsekade. The group was locked in by the police and was transferred to another location after a few hours. “This decision was taken to restore order,” the municipality said.

“The triangle wants to emphasize that demonstrating is a fundamental right and that is facilitated every time as well as possible in Amsterdam. The aim is always to find a safe location with the organization through good consultation in advance, through the triangle, with the organization, and about what can and cannot be done. It is clear that despite the agreements made earlier, this organization intentionally and knowingly did not want to comply with them,” the municipality explains. The Museumplein was also designated a safety risk area on Sunday.

In the future, calves will have to stay with the dairy farmer for longer or even their entire lives and foreign imports will be restricted. The recommendations are too controversial to be dealt with by the outgoing Cabinet. The topic will likely be part of the discussion during the new Cabinet’s formation.

According to a report conducted under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Dutch Environmental Assessment Agency, this will change the role of the dairy farmer. At the moment, 70% of all calves born go straight to the meat industry.

The market for surplus calves has been a lucrative business since the 1960s. In this market the Netherlands has taken first place in Europe when it comes to size. 90% of the veal produced in the Netherlands is exported.

The sector, however, often receives heavy backlash. One reason is the high mortality rate among calves due to them not being able to strengthen their immune system through their mother’s milk. Calves are also shipped over long distances putting a strain on their health. To compensate for the young animals’ poor health, they are often fed large amounts of antibiotics which lead to bacteria becoming resistant to the medications.

Calf farming puts a strain on the climate as well. The manure created through the production of veal often causes damage to the environment. In 2019, Minister of Agriculture, Carola Schouten, launched an investigation on the sustainability of veal farming.

The report concluded that “the limited sales in the Netherlands, combined with the import of calves questions the right to produce.” Experts came up with three different scenarios in all of which the distance calves are shipped is greatly reduced and the import of calves is heavily restricted or completely forbidden. In one of the scenarios, calves will be allowed to remain on the dairy farm their entire lives and have access to unlimited drinking and higher quality bedding. The financial and economic consequences of the changes were not calculated in the report.

The RIVM also conducted research in 2015, and already stated that the herb was certainly not recommended in combination with medicines. “For example, it reduces the effectiveness of chemotherapy or drugs against fungal or viral infections,” the institute concluded at the time. However, a new study now shows that the use of St. John’s wort can be harmful even without combination with medication.

The National Poisons Information Centre (NVIS) and side effects center Lareb received complaints about burned skin when people sat in the sun after using the herb. “Other complaints such as dizziness, diarrhea and anxiety can also occur”, according to the RIVM.

Anton Rietveld, head of the Food Safety Department at RIVM, states that for food supplements and tea it is not known from what dose St. John’s wort can be harmful. Moreover, dietary supplements – unlike medicines – are not tested or required to be scientifically researched.