Credit: Koji Sasahara /AP
Concerns are growing over the glacial pace of Japan’s coronavirus vaccination rollout, despite the high-pressure countdown to the Tokyo Olympics opening in four months.
Japan’s vaccine campaign has been delayed by a litany of issues, from supply deficits and regulatory bureaucracy to lack of manpower and shortages of specialist syringes, layered with a deep-rooted anti-vaccine sentiment among the public.
As a result, its vaccine schedule is unfolding at one of the slowest paces in the world. Since launching in mid-February – months after most other major economies – only 70,000 frontline healthcare workers have been inoculated, with vaccinations of the elderly not due to start before mid-April.
In contrast, South Korea, where vaccinations were launched a week after Japan, has already administered more than 316,000 vaccines. Meanwhile, in terms of vaccinations per 100 people, the figure is only 0.1 in Japan, compared to 35 in the UK and 3.7 in China.
While Japan has secured the rights to at least 564 million doses of coronavirus vaccines – the largest volume in Asia – a string of logistical and bureaucratic challenges have delayed the rollout.
One key stumbling block is Japan’s regulatory requirement that all new medicines undergo clinical trials with Japanese patients, including vaccines. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is the only one currently approved for use in Japan.
A new requirement for shipment approval from the European Union, introduced in January, has further impacted the process. Clinical trials for the Astrazeneca and Moderna vaccines have been completed in Japan, but officials are currently awaiting regulatory approval.
Coronavirus Japan Spotlight Chart — cases default
The government has further highlighted a deliberately cautious approach to its vaccine campaign, due to Japan having one of the lowest rates of vaccine confidence in the world.
A series of vaccine scandals dating back five decades has left a deeply cautious imprint on the public, with a study by broadcasters NHK stating earlier this year that only half the nation was prepared to be vaccinated.
Hinting at the nation’s scepticism, Taro Kono, Japan’s vaccine minister, said last month: “I think it is more important for the Japanese government to show the Japanese people that we have done everything possible to prove the efficacy and safety of the vaccine to encourage the Japanese people to take the vaccine. So at the end of the day we might have started slower, but we think it will be more effective.”
The looming deadline of the Olympics is also weighing heavily on the vaccination campaign. The torch relay is due to kick off later this month on March 25, with the opening ceremony scheduled for July 23.
Tokyo Olympics organisers are due to make a decision on whether to permit foreign spectators later this month, although there is growing sense of public unease over opening Japan’s borders for the games.
More than 75 per cent of Japanese were opposed to fans from overseas attending the Tokyo Olympics, according to a new poll by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper earlier this year.
Japan is also currently tackling a resurgence in cases, with the government last weekend extending a state of emergency for Tokyo and surrounding regions until March 21. However, Japan has widely escaped the cataclysmic impact of the pandemic experienced by many other nations.
Highlighting Japan’s comparatively low coronavirus infection rates, Haruka Sakamoto, a physician and researcher at Keio University, told Reuters: “The sense of urgency among the government is not, I think, similar to other G7 countries.”
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