Update 2 Oct 2023 Prof Kojima has corrected his analysis and found that cardio deaths among young men did NOT spike in Feb-Apr 2021. Apparently, he input the cumulative numbers for those months. The corrected numbers are thankfully similar to those in previous years. So the hot lot hypothesis remains unconfirmed.
I can confirm medical workers got it before the elderly. Even we part time English teachers at med schools were offered it long before my aged in-laws were able to get theirs. It took a long time for Japan to get enough shots for every one. Even after offering them to the elderly, many had to wait a long time before they could get them.
There are few things that actually exist that are rarer than a criminal pathologist in Japan. Many prefectures have not a single one nor anything like a Medical Examiner. Administrative pathologists are less rare but their finding are not binding in criminal cases.
While I do not know the situation with non criminal pathology in Japan, I know that unless the survivors ask for an autopsy and pay for it and find a university able and willing to perform it, one will not be conducted in the prefectures without a ME. I suspect similar for non criminal autopsies.
Thinking this article and the previous one, and the comments to it through, the question I am left with is what detailed information on the effects (& usage) of each lot has been given back (and perhaps continues to be) to the manufacturers by the Japanese government? The manufacturers presumably know exactly what went into each lot, and there is evidence here of both range finding between lots, and that some were placebos. So, is such information being provided, and can it be requested under an FOI or similar?
I’m going to assume that even if the government were privy to that information, they wouldn’t release it due to a non-disclosure agreement with the vax makers. That’s the excuse they gave when asked for the per shot price. Also, the virologist Takayuki Miyazawa asked someone in government about how they conduct quality control and the answer was “It’s confidential” (https://x.com/fseiichizb4/status/1704865972568596691?s=46).
I may be mistaken Forest Cat, but I remember the Abe-led LDP ramming through a controversial States Secrets Law that effectively allows the Japanese Corporate Nation State to keep secrets from the public in perpetuity, thus rendering the Japanese equivalence of FOIA a paper maché kabuki show.
While Japanese law does a pretty good job of protecting corporate interests, if you look closely at the rights of those arrested under suspicion, Japanese law does not even go through the motions of pretending to address individual human rights, much less disclosure of anything that can be dubbed "State Secrets".
The Japanese legal system is designed to protect the government not the subjects. Information on any topic is withheld from the public if those in power believe it would cause a panic.
What does this mean? I think the graphs plot the actual number of deaths in each month (for each of 5 years), so the graphs should be labelled "Number of deaths" rather than "monthly changes", which might imply use of a logarithmic scale.
It would be good to look in to this for women too. While the are far fewer female doctors and med students, nurses and nursing students were included in the first shot offering and they are predominantly female.
I can confirm medical workers got it before the elderly. Even we part time English teachers at med schools were offered it long before my aged in-laws were able to get theirs. It took a long time for Japan to get enough shots for every one. Even after offering them to the elderly, many had to wait a long time before they could get them.
The low autopsy rate is a crime by itself. How can somebody just rule out the shots if you don't have any proof that validates their statement.
There are few things that actually exist that are rarer than a criminal pathologist in Japan. Many prefectures have not a single one nor anything like a Medical Examiner. Administrative pathologists are less rare but their finding are not binding in criminal cases.
While I do not know the situation with non criminal pathology in Japan, I know that unless the survivors ask for an autopsy and pay for it and find a university able and willing to perform it, one will not be conducted in the prefectures without a ME. I suspect similar for non criminal autopsies.
Thinking this article and the previous one, and the comments to it through, the question I am left with is what detailed information on the effects (& usage) of each lot has been given back (and perhaps continues to be) to the manufacturers by the Japanese government? The manufacturers presumably know exactly what went into each lot, and there is evidence here of both range finding between lots, and that some were placebos. So, is such information being provided, and can it be requested under an FOI or similar?
I’m going to assume that even if the government were privy to that information, they wouldn’t release it due to a non-disclosure agreement with the vax makers. That’s the excuse they gave when asked for the per shot price. Also, the virologist Takayuki Miyazawa asked someone in government about how they conduct quality control and the answer was “It’s confidential” (https://x.com/fseiichizb4/status/1704865972568596691?s=46).
Yes, but it is easy to say 'no' to an informal request, much harder to say no to a formal FOI legal request.
I may be mistaken Forest Cat, but I remember the Abe-led LDP ramming through a controversial States Secrets Law that effectively allows the Japanese Corporate Nation State to keep secrets from the public in perpetuity, thus rendering the Japanese equivalence of FOIA a paper maché kabuki show.
While Japanese law does a pretty good job of protecting corporate interests, if you look closely at the rights of those arrested under suspicion, Japanese law does not even go through the motions of pretending to address individual human rights, much less disclosure of anything that can be dubbed "State Secrets".
https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nsa/foia/japanfoia.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/10/japan-state-secrets-law-security-dissentAs far as I know, the government over here is not held accountable to the public by anything like a FOIA.
The Japanese legal system is designed to protect the government not the subjects. Information on any topic is withheld from the public if those in power believe it would cause a panic.
"Monthly changes in the number of deaths"
What does this mean? I think the graphs plot the actual number of deaths in each month (for each of 5 years), so the graphs should be labelled "Number of deaths" rather than "monthly changes", which might imply use of a logarithmic scale.
Fair point. “Monthly changes” came from the original Japanese. I’ve changed the captions to “Number of deaths...per month.”
The link to the Japanese article returns 404. Wayback machine to the rescue: https://web.archive.org/web/20230922132900/https://agora-web.jp/archives/230918075439.html
It would be good to look in to this for women too. While the are far fewer female doctors and med students, nurses and nursing students were included in the first shot offering and they are predominantly female.