At first glance, it's hard to guess that Japan has become the most important home of the Covid-19 outside of China. Office workers crowd the subway during rush hour, restaurants are always full, and public services are operating normally.
However, there are indications of concern: in the street, offices or transport, most faces are covered with a mask. Protection has become almost impossible to find in businesses across the country, despite government calls to manufacturers and increased production. Instead, bottles of hydroalcoholic gel are available to the public at the entrance to metro stations and certain stores.
The archipelago is however facing an unprecedented crisis: the coronavirus has already caused the death of three people, including two from the "Diamond Princess", a liner on board of which more than 600 of the 3700 passengers and crew members have been infected. .
In a country where public statements and criticism are rare, the video - deleted since - by Kentaro Iwata, professor at the University of Kobe, on the management of the epidemic on the cruise ship, quarantined since the beginning of the months south of the capital, looked like a bomb.
VIDEO. Coronavirus: Doctor denounces "chaos" aboard the Diamond Princess
The infectious disease specialist said he was "scared" after discovering that the contaminated and healthy areas were not well separated on board, as shown in a photo posted on Twitter by the Secretary of State for Health, Gaku Hashimoto, and quickly deleted since.
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Last hiccup in date, while the cases have multiplied, two Australian passengers, returning to their countries, were positive after having been tested negative in Japan. This raises new questions about the hundreds of repatriations authorized by Tokyo, already under fire from international critics.
A metro stopped for a coughing fit
Wear a mask, avoid "unnecessary gatherings" and public transport: the instructions to avoid the spread of the epidemic also aim to reassure the population ... without much success. “This is a first for us. We are doing our best to prevent a spike in infections, "government spokesman Yoshihide Suga defended on Thursday February 20. Naomi, a 29-year-old single mother, recognizes this: she is afraid for her child. To reassure their employees and avoid having them take transportation, Japanese companies have opted for teleworking, a very rare practice in the archipelago.
Sign of feverishness, Tuesday in Fukuoka, in the southwest of the country, a man pressed the emergency stop button of the metro because another traveler had "coughed while he was not wearing a mask" , reports the daily Mainichi Shimbun. An anxiety shared by taxi companies after the contamination of a driver in Tokyo. "Our customers are worried, they are going home earlier and preferably choose drivers wearing a mask," says Kazuhiro Komichi, an employee of Tokyo Musen.
Hand washing, wearing a mask, cleaning vehicles… “We do our best to limit the risk of contamination, but we still don't know what to do. We don't even know if the disinfectant used to clean cars is effective against the virus, ”says the taxi driver.