COVID-19 Coronavirus: situation in Japan

Blimey, Covid-19 made it into the national news again!

The Health Ministry of Japan reported 22,288 new COVID-19 cases for the week ending on 17 August. This marks the ninth consecutive week of rising infections. On average, each designated medical institution saw about 6.3 instances, a slight increase from 6.13 the previous week, though still below the 8.5 average recorded during the same period in 2024.

Regionally, Kyūshū continues to see the highest infection rates, with Miyazaki averaging 14.74 cases and Kagoshima 12.63. Other areas with elevated averages included Saitama at 11.52, Ibaraki at 10.87, and Akita at 10.71. Among major cities, Tōkyō recorded 3.61 cases per institution, Aichi 10.25, Ōsaka 3.38, and Fukuoka 7.01. As in previous years, COVID-19 infections tend to surge during the summer and winter months.

The average peaked at 14.58 in late July 2024 before decreasing. But the number of new cases again began increasing between December 2024 and January. The average again decreased and in May fell under 1. According to the Japan Institute for Health Security genome surveillance, 28 per cent of the new cases in July were of the Nimbus strain that spread in many parts of the world earlier this year. The World Health Organization has designated Nimbus as a "variant under monitoring," but there are no reports that it leads to more serious symptoms than other variants.

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During breakfast this morning, my wife got a call from her mother's (who is now 96) care home--they've had at least one case of covid. So all visits are off (wife and her sis usually go maybe 2-3x/week normally). I'll guess that the place is kind of on lockdown, everyone staying in their rooms for a while.

My mom's independent living apartment complex just had a big outbreak and was on lockdown last week. Fortunately she didn't catch it this time.

Just a reminder that COVID never fully went away, it just became endemic like the flu, which means it's not novel any more and slipped from public attention.

Wow, I wasn't aware COVID-19 was still rampant.

Annual deaths linked to COVID-19 continue to exceed 30,000 in Japan, even three years after the disease was downgraded to the same legal category as seasonal influenza under the country's infectious disease law. Older people remain particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus, which has continued to mutate since the start of the pandemic.

COVID-19 ranked as Japan's eighth leading cause of death in both 2023 and 2024, according to Health Ministry data. In 2024, around 36,000 people died from the disease, down slightly from roughly 38,000 the previous year. More than 90% of the deaths involved people aged 65 or older.

8 May marked the third anniversary of the government's decision to reclassify COVID-19 as a Category 5 infectious disease. Large outbreaks still tend to occur during summer and winter, although infection numbers during the 2025–2026 winter season were lower than in previous years.

"The latest variant is a descendant of the BA.3 strain that briefly appeared in the first half of 2022, and reports of it are currently growing worldwide," said Atsuo Hamada, a visiting professor of infectious diseases at Tokyo Medical University Hospital's Travel Clinic. Indications of a BA.3 outbreak overseas have manifested following a three-year hiatus. Therefore, BA.3.2, which is believed to have enhanced abilities to evade immune functions, is likened to a cicada species that spends a long time underground as a larva and then emerges from its pupa above ground. No significant increase has been confirmed of patients developing more severe symptoms from BA.3.2 than from its earlier counterparts. Data from the Japan Institute for Health Security (JIHS) showed the first confirmed BA.3.2 case in Japan was reported in January this year.

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Japan sees roughly 9,000 to 10,000 influenza-related deaths annually, compared with three to four times that number for COVID-19.

For those of you in Japan, what attitudes are you seeing about COVID these days? Do most people take it seriously?

Vincent3 said:

For those of you in Japan, what attitudes are you seeing about COVID these days? Do most people take it seriously?

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I usually see some TV news each day, and I cannot remember when I last heard it mentioned. I know you asked about whether people take it seriously, which is a slightly different question, but the media plays a strong role in deciding what is taken seriously and what isn't in Japan.

Wife and I both got shots (along with flu) last fall, maybe october or so. But no, I haven't seen much of anything about it in the paper (I look/scan thru a local morning paper daily).

On the other hand, measles has been in the news.

And now Ebola. Ebola outbreak - DRC 2026

As Japan has a large number of elderly that may have an influence on death rate. Not being in the news means likely less demand for shot. We all get the shot but I suspect it is less in the news in most countries.