How many Japanese still believe the Covid narrative?

I’ve often written about how Japan’s high rates of mask wearing and vaccination reflect not just fear of Covid but also peer-pressure and fear of stigma. But this leads to another question: how many people in Japan still believe the govt/media narrative that Covid is so dangerous that it requires endless masking and jabbing?

Since actions speak louder than words, let’s look at the revealed preferences of the population.

I’m Still Jabbing

During 2022, the Japanese were far and away the most reliable consumers of mRNA injections.

And although the mouse-tested Omicron boosters haven’t been as popular as the original gene juice, 36% of Japanese have had them, including 61% of over 65s.

In contrast, the Omicron jab rate is only 15.4% for Americans over 5 and 38.1% for Americans over 65.

If you Have to Mask

The media has pushed fear and loathing of the unmasked since spring 2020, but how many Japanese will unmask at the workplace given the chance?

IT company GMO made masks optional in its offices in September. In December, 2335 of its staff answered a survey about their mask-wearing in the office. The frankly depressing results are below.

Blue: Unmasked. Orange: Mainly unmasked, but will mask depending on circumstances. Green: Mainly masked, but will unmask depending on circumstances. Red: Masked

Yep, after 3 months of mask optional, only 24% of staff were going unmasked most of the time. Of course, Japanese people wear masks for non-Covid reasons too, and 37% of GMO staff will unmask “depending on circumstances” (e.g., most other people are unmasked). But for 38% of the staff, you’ll probably have to take their masks off their cold dead faces at this point.

That’s Entertainment

During much of 2020 and 2021, bars and restaurants were singled out for bullying by politicians and media because they are just about the only places in Japan where people don’t wear masks constantly. So since the last round of early closure requests were lifted in March 2022, how much have big city entertainment districts returned to the pre-2020 level?

The below figure from the Covid Response Advisory Board shows the number of people in six of Tokyo’s entertainment districts between 18:00 and 24:00 in 2019 to 2022. In the week before Christmas 2022, there were 36.9% fewer people in these places than at the same time in 2019.

The low numbers in 2021 can be attributed to Governor Koike’s War on Alcohol. What’s the point of going out if almost every bar is closed by 20:00? But the second half of 2022 is barely different to the second half of 2020. This probably helps to contextualise why airlines and other businesses request people masks to “relieve anxiety” of other customers who are scared of being around unmasked people.

(Don’t) Go West

It’s probably worth pointing out at least one survey result, especially when its as eye-popping as the one below.

If you think that seems insanely high, note that outbound travel from Japan is still not even 25% of the 2019 level.

Admittedly, the yen dropping through the floor in 2022 didn’t help. But Japan’s border closure lasted so long because it was so popular. The media’s insistence on lying about how masks kept Japan’s Covid number low in 2020 led much of the population to view unmasked foreigners as biohazards, and people who hold this moronic opinion aren’t in a rush travel internationally.

So based on all these numbers, about 35-37% of the Japanese population still believe the Covid narrative and seem prepared to keep jabbing, masking, and staying home indefinitely. But one objection to this interpretation is that these actions directly cost people either little (masks) or nothing (jabs) or even save people money (staying home). A better test of narrative belief would be to see how many people would actually pay out of pocket for the Covid jabs. And that is a question the government is in no rush to find out the answer to.

Jabonomics: Japanese taxpayers to keep paying for Covid shots