Some Japanese citizens argue that the government's new cove in laws are overreaching and violate private rights, while others complained that the government is not doing enough to protect its citizens from the spread, which has led to farm or infections.

So in this video, I want to share with you what's been going on here in Japan for the last month or so, and you can let me know what you think about it in the comments.

Specifically, you can let me know which one do you agree with and which ones you don't.

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All right, let's get started.

How we got here.

First of all, let me catch you up.

Japan declared its second state of emergency in January, including Tokyo and its neighboring prefectures, the same day that Tokyo reported a record 2447 cases in one day with a goal to curb the spread of infection.

It was later expanded to a total of 11 prefectures, including Osaka, Kyoto and Fukuoka.

It was initially expected to end February 7th, but just recently it was extended to March 7th, which means that here in Tokyo were still in a state of emergency.

So what does the state of emergency mean to residents living here in Tokyo and other related areas?

The new law basically, the government requested that business hours for restaurants, bars, cafes, karaoke is and such be limited to 8 p.m. With alcohol being served on Lee between 11 AM and seven PM Also, any events held were to be limited to have the venue capacity or max 5000 people, whichever was less again, finishing no later than eight PM Finally, the government requested that companies have 70% or more of the staff working from home.

But in the last couple of months being on the ground here in Tokyo, you could see that most restaurants and bars cooperated.

While many companies still had more than 70% of their workforce in the office, this is because Japanese law didn't have any means to enforce these restrictions.

In other words, all of these restrictions relied on voluntary cooperation by businesses and individuals.

Well, that was true until last week.

Now the National Diet passed two bills that allow authorities to place financial penalties during a state of emergency on businesses who refused local government orders to reduce business hours and on individuals who refused to be tested or hospitalized.

We'll get more into this and just a little bit.

Infections rise.

Remember that go to travel program that I mentioned last October where the Japanese government literally paid people to travel all throughout Japan?

Well, that initiative was suspended after a few months of this last December, as there was a huge increase in reported cases all throughout Japan.

So here's a graph of reported cases in Japan over the last few months, and here's when they go to travel Program was initiated, and then when it was suspended, makes you kind of wonder.

In fact, it confused a lot of people in Japan since it was the government who encouraged people to travel and only a few months later suspended the program because of increased infections, which eventually led to the current state of emergency testing and reporting.

And on top of all this, many critics argue that Japan is not testing enough.

Currently, it's about 43,000 tests per day, and therefore it's assumed that the total number of reported cases is a far lower than the actual number.

And speaking of actual numbers, it was recently brought to light that the government's contract tracing App for Android called Ochoa hadn't been sending information to its users when a user came in contact with an infected person since September 28th of last year.

Apparently, Android users make up about 30% of the apse downloads.

I guess that's maybe one point for Apple users before continue on.

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On a different note, Japan has suspended entry of all nonresident foreigners into Japan.

So for now, if you are planning on coming to Japan, earliest maybe would be on March 7th if the restrictions are lifted.

But even then, with the situations ever changing, I wouldn't book my ticket just yet.

As for foreign residents entering the country, they will be a cried to sign a pledge upon entry, saying that they will stay in a 14 day quarantine after arrival and any pointers who breached the 14 days self isolation period will get their resident status or broke and maybe reported they've even considered naming the violators to the public.

This is apparently in response to a man violating his 14 day quarantine after returning from Britain just to eat out with multiple people, which led to the spread of a new strain of the virus here in Japan.

The details.

Under the new law, the authorities can officially demand anyone entering the country to quarantine for 14 days, and anyone who refuses will be forced to go to a special quarantine facility.

Oh, and during the state of emergency, or even saves three alert businesses refusing to shorten their business hours or refusing to shut down for a set period of time face a 300,000 yen fine about $2800.

And under the new infectious disease law infected person, refusing hospitalization could be fined up to 500,000 yen about $4700 and refusing to work with the government to trace the infection will land the violator, a 28 $100 by financial aid.

It's not all punitive.

The government has introduced financial aid policies to help support all the new restrictions.

Households who have a decreased income as a result of Cove in 19 can receive an interest free loan of 200,000 yen about $1900 and for households to arm.

Or people who have become unemployed can receive an interest free loan of about $1900 per month for up to three months, while individuals can receive about $1400 per month for three months in terms of housing.

If you've either lost your job or have a reduced income, the government will grant you three months of rent and up to 12 months if conditions are met.

At least these funds don't need to be paid back.

And for businesses who maintained employment despite a drop in sales, the government or subsidized employment allowances up to 15,000 yen about $142 per employee per day.

Finally, for the restaurants and bars who have complied and shut down by a PM, the government provides a flat subsidy of about $570 a day.

I don't know, though what do you think of that subsidy?

Do you think it's enough vaccinations that all, said Japan's goal, Like many other countries is to vaccinate its residents.

Starting from mid February, 10,000 medical workers are scheduled to be vaccinated by mid March.

Three million workers, and then in early April, regular residents over the age of 65 will start receiving the vaccination.

After that, there'll be a wider roll out, giving priority to people with underlying health conditions.

It's crazy to think, though, that countries like the UK have already vaccinated 10 plus million people.

As far as the Tokyo Olympics are concerned, it's still officially scheduled for this summer, as a Japanese government and the IOC are pushing hard for it to happen.

Personally, I'm a bit skeptical, given logistics of flying everyone from around the world to Tokyo safely.

It kind of sounds like a meets the situation to me.

But on Lee, Time will tell.

Interestingly, the I O.

C.

F stated that when the Tokyo Olympics were held in 2021 it will still be called the 2020 games.

I'm sure a lot of printing companies are devastated by the news.

Well, that's it for now.

If you guys agree or disagree with Japanese laws policies, let me know in the comments.

If you guys like this video helped me out and hit that like button.

If you guys want to see more of this type of content or anything related Japan, hey, that subscribe button and the bell button and I'll catch you guys in the next one.