I've avoided talking about the issue for a while (on this forum, at least; god knows I grumble and gripe plenty amongst family and friends
), but the sheer hypocrisy and incompetence displayed in the policies being enacted by the Japanese government (or government
s, really, as what's being done—and
not done—on the prefectural level by governors like Koike in Tokyo and Yoshimura in Osaka is just as embarrassing) is completely beyond the pale at this point.
In what logical world does a "state of emergency" mean that there's absolutely no problem—no sir, none whatsoever—with going full speed ahead holding
the single largest event in the world, bringing some 90,000 people from around the globe into Tokyo while the owner of the 8-seat sake bar in my neighborhood who has jumped through countless hoops, filled out countless forms, installed acrylic partitions, etc. etc. time and again to meet the arbitrary, constantly shifting standards imposed by the Tokyo government over the past year now is prohibited from serving even a single cup of sake to someone who wants to have a quiet drink alone after work.
And these ridiculous threats of fining liquor stores and wholesalers, or getting financial institutions to apply pressure and so on and so forth. It's really gotten to the point where it's almost criminal. Meanwhile, the government has fumbled the ball with the latest vaccine shipment, such that many local municipalities—who originally
were threatened with fines by the national government if their rollout was too slow—now have put a freeze on reservations because they don't know when they'll have enough doses coming in.
And so at the end of the day, it's the same story it's been from the beginning. The government does jack all, blunders and bungles pretty much everything and then Suga and Koike go on TV and talk with very serious faces in grave tones about how the Japanese people just have to suck it up and grin and bear it for the greater good. And all the restaurants/izakaya/bars/movie theaters/live music venues who are going to go out of business, the college students who can't even go to their own campuses to take real classes where they can make and interact with friends, the grade school students who can't have their field trips or sports days, and so on and so forth have to pick up the bill so that the incompetent, corrupt fat cats can have their Olympics and collect their bloody (literally) paychecks.
It would be absolutely hilarious if it weren't so goddamned sad.
</rant>