[ExI] The Japanese mystery: why so few COVID cases?

[SR Ballard]

Well, there are some differences:

- masks are more than socially acceptable, they are socially required in this situation. 

They are also used to wearing masks and thus wear them correctly. I have only on a very, very few occasions seen a Japanese person with their nose outside their mask. 

- dramatically lower obesity and diabetes levels. Also dramatically more exercise

- in general, Japanese do not touch things Americans touch. (I have only lived in these two countries so that’s my frame of reference.)

I have never seen a Japanese person touch a windowpane, either purposely or incidentally. One hardly ever sees fingerprints outside of tourist areas.

Japanese people are significantly less likely to touch railings when walking up and down stairs, or when riding escalators than Americans. 

They are more likely to take stairs or escalators as compared to elevators. This reduces touching (buttons) and an enclosed breathing environment.

When they shop they are not likely to touch multiple products or look at the information without buying that product. They are also less likely to “decide against” purchasing a product they have already put in their basket. 

The do not tend to touch walls, door frames, ledges, or other railings as often. They do not lean on or touch furniture as often.

Many things can be done “hands-free”, such as using an IC card for the train, grocery store, or restaurant. Where IC cards are accepted, it is completely contactless, no pin or button pressing required. 

Service workers wearing gloves, in at least some sectors, is normal. My grocery store in Japan had all the cashiers wearing gloves in 2018. For other professions, like train attendants or policemen fabric gloves are either required or possible. It’s not, seemingly, as “weird”. 

In many shopping centers, doors are either automatic or just... not there. Sometimes you do open doors, obviously, but I would say a place like my restaurant in Japan would have automatic doors or an open doorway rather than the “two doors with a tiny useless foyer” thing which is very common in US restaurants. I never saw this in Japan. Perhaps it is a leftover from coat-check, or to save on cooling/heating bills. These “airlocks” are found in basically every single US store or shopping center, in public libraries, government buildings, some schools. 

This doubles door touching AND collects stagnant, covid-filled air.

- Different interaction style. While Japanese people are often forced to sit closer to each other due to the size of rooms and buildings, that’s not their general preference. 

The level of physical touching among friends is a bit lower but also a different type. People seem unlikely to touch each other’s skin, generally. 

Friends don’t tend to “pal around” or “horseplay”. Couples rarely hold hands or kiss in public. 

I witnessed 0 Japanese people hugging other Japanese people in the 3 months I lived there. I’m 100% sure it happens but the “hug to say hi” thing... it’s not a thing. No cheek kissing either. And the mouth kissing thing my family does? Even less of a thing. Like negative a thing. 

SR Ballard

> On Jun 28, 2020, at 9:27 PM, Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> https://www.embopress.org/doi/10.15252/emmm.202012481?fbclid=IwAR3YClOFxx3Vy6hOD0VqLCynrTxRQxrUigVvLfMhkxRqHPxST9VdEhGWSlk&
> 
> --------------Excerpt------------------------------------------
> Despite early exposure, its dense and aging population, and little social distancing measures, Japan reports low infection and low death from COVID‐19. Here, we speculate on and discuss the possible reasons that may account for this anomaly.
> 
> There is a lot of interest brewing as to why Japan has such low numbers of confirmed infected cases of the COVID‐19 disease, caused by the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus (Fig 1), despite its high population density (over 6,100 persons/sqkm in Tokyo, 2.4 times higher than New York City) and large percentage of high‐risk individuals over 65 years of age (about 26%, compared with 15% in the USA). In Singapore and Hong Kong, rapid and strict quarantine rules and contact tracing have helped to “flatten the curve”. In South Korea, mass testing and quarantine measures appear to have reduced the rate of new cases. However, Japan has not engaged in expansive testing, contact tracing, or strict quarantine measures and yet is reporting a slow growth rate of infected persons and a death rate that is currently just 1/10th of world average. It is difficult to make direct comparison of infection rates, because the number of tests per capita varies dramatically between countries. However, this low death rate cannot be simply explained by lack of testing or reporting, as no surge in death from respiratory syndromes has been reported either.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Is it due to differences in the prevalence of underlying conditions? This one has me stumped.
> 
> Stuart LaForge
> 
> 
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