Abstract

The global COVID-19 pandemic continues to the present day. However, more than 2 years after the first reports of infection, countermeasures are changing from country to country. In this paper, I trace the chronological order of the Japanese government’s COVID-19 measures and the Japanese people’s feelings during the pandemic. After the first case was reported from Wuhan, China, COVID-19 spread rapidly all over the world. Japan’s first case was a person who returned from Wuhan. Soon after this was reported, there was a series of reports of infected persons throughout Japan. Initially in Japan, the government disclosed information on infected persons and investigated their close contacts. This investigation was called an “active epidemiological investigation,” and it was conducted by public health nurses in local public health offices. This type of information disclosure was thought to help contain the infection; however, it only facilitated the public identification of infected persons. Infected persons and their families were discriminated against by their communities. The government closed schools and public institutions, and businesses encouraged telecommuting. Health care workers and their families also suffered discrimination and restricted movement because they cared for COVID-19 patients. However, the situation changed as the number of COVID-19 patients increased, new variants emerged, and a vaccine was developed. By the time the Tokyo Olympics were held in 2021, nearly 70% of the total population had been vaccinated against COVID-19. Although the number of infected people increased during the Tokyo Olympics, the rate of severe cases decreased. When the omicron variant emerged at the end of 2021, it replaced the previous delta variant due to its highly infectious nature. While many countries have changed their measures against COVID-19 accordingly, Japan continues to deal with the disease much as it did in the early days of the pandemic.