124th year | no. 43,139 ISSN 0289-1956 © THE JAPAN TIMES, LTD., 2020 | www.japantimes.co.

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Governors nationwide call for campaign rethink

Vaccine fight
Go To Travel flares up with
claims of
plan plagued Russian hacks

by questions
BLOOMBERG

A half year into a pandemic that’s killed

AAnalysis
ERIC JOHNSTON
STAFF WRITER
The government’s abrupt announcement
Thursday to exclude Tokyo from a national
tourism campaign has sparked questions
and criticism about why only the capital has
been left out and whether or not the exclu-
sion will really help contain the coronavirus.
Tourism minister Kazuyoshi Akaba, whose
ministry is in charge of the Go To Travel Cam-
“I want the capital’s residents to feel reas-
sured, and I hope that together — with the
Cabinet Office and the governors of neigh-
boring municipalities — to eliminate the risk
of travel between prefectures,” Tokyo Gov.
Yuriko Koike said.
The number of cases in the capital has
been on the rise for the past weeks, trigger-
ing concern by local governors that cam-
paign users from Tokyo would spread the
coronavirus to other prefectures with fewer
medical personnel and facilities.
Saitama Gov. Motohiro Ono, for one, called
almost 600,000 people, the international
race for protection from the virus escalated
to a treacherous new level with allegations
that vaccine development has become a tar-
get of Russian cyberattacks.
Vaccine nationalism is already a concern
as countries jockey to secure doses of future
shots, desperate for a way out of a global cri-
sis that’s slammed their economies.
Science and money have been the main
drivers so far, with the U.S. spending bil-
lions of dollars on deals for experimental
shots and other countries trying to keep
up. Government reports that Russian intel-
A group in Provo, Utah, protesting against face masks being required in schools removed the social distancing tape on the chairs and filled the Utah ligence hacked international research centers
County Commission room on Wednesday, prompting Commissioner Tanner Ainge to call for a vote to adjourn the meeting.  AP developing inoculations against COVID-19
add a plot line reminiscent of Cold War spy

U.S. clash over face masks persists

paign, which offers a 50 percent government
subsidy for domestic travel, described the
decision as heart-breaking but necessary
given the recent spike in infections in Tokyo
in particular. It was a decision, he said, that
was made in close consultation with experts
on a government coronavirus subcommittee.
“Tokyo is an important tourist destina-
tion and many who live in Tokyo travel
elsewhere. We recognize there will be an
economic effect of excluding these people
from the Go To Travel Campaign,” Akaba
told reporters Friday morning.
According to an estimate by Dai-ichi Life
Research Institute, the campaign, if launched
from the initial plan of August nationwide,
will boost the travel industry market by 55
percent and contribute up to ¥2.8 trillion for
the industries of travel, restaurants and event
organizers.
With Tokyo excluded from the plan for the
time being, there are concerns about its abil-
ity to boost domestic tourism spending. The
campaign is slated to start Wednesday.
“But more than the economic effect, we
considered the safety policy that needed to
be taken, based on the advice of experts,”
Akaba said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga
also apologized to reporters for the way the
decision was made.
“We made the decision (to exclude Tokyo)
just as a large increase in Tokyo infections was
recorded,” he explained. On Friday, Tokyo
saw a record 293 new coronavirus cases.
on Tokyoites to think about the potential for
infection and avoid unnecessary travel to his
prefecture. Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura
had called on the government to limit the Go
To Travel Campaign to intraregional travel
rather than to anywhere within Japan.
Even distant prefectures that rely heavily
on tourists from Tokyo joined the call.
On Thursday night, Hokkaido Gov.
Naomichi Suzuki said the campaign should
be revised to travel within prefectures with
the same level of infections.
“The situation in each area of the coun-
try is different and the government should
respond according to the actual infection
situation in each area,” Suzuki said.
Excluding Tokyo from the campaign also
provoked questions about how feasible it is
to check whether tourists are from the cap-
ital. There is also a possibility that tourists
will stay in Tokyo’s neighboring prefectures
and visit Tokyo for the day.
According to the plan, participating
hotels and ryokan (traditional inns) will be
required at reception to check the customers’
personal identification to show they do not
live in Tokyo. Guests who refuse to provide
such identification will be excluded from the
discount campaign.
Social distancing at hotel restaurants as
well as at local restaurants will be in place. In
addition, all hotels are required to be in con-
tact with local health care centers, including
on weekends, to deal with any guests who
display symptoms of illness.
As rules grow, many
decry the moves as
infringing on rights
SARAH MERVOSH, MANNY FERNANDEZ
AND CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
THE NEW YORK TIMES
As images of people wearing surgical masks
flashed across the screen, Morgan Freeman’s
deep, soothing voice delivered a message to
America: “When you wear a mask, you have
my respect. Because your mask doesn’t pro-
tect you, it protects me.”
Using familiar actors, stirring background
music and the arresting eyes of people peer-
ing out above their masks, a broad national
ad campaign unveiled Thursday by New
York state, once the center of the coronavirus
pandemic, aimed to educate people about
how covering their mouths and noses could
save lives.
That it was needed at all — six months
since the virus was first detected in the
United States — speaks to the lingering fight
about the use of masks. At local government
meetings and in the checkout lines of big box
stores, Americans continue to wrestle over
one of the simplest methods that health offi-
cials recommend for stopping the spread of
the virus.
A tidal wave of new mask requirements
have been issued in the last few days, amid
surging cases in many regions, including
more than 74,000 new coronavirus cases
across the country Thursday, the most in a
single day. Face coverings will be required
at stores like Walmart, Target and CVS, and
in a growing number of Republican-led
states where governors once resisted such
mandates.
More than half the states have issued
statewide mask requirements, including
Arkansas, where Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a
Republican, announced a face covering
requirement Thursday, after previously
taking a more hands-off approach. Gov.
Jared Polis of Colorado, a Democrat, also
issued a mask order Thursday, after ques-
tioning whether such a mandate would be
enforceable.
But there remains firm resistance in many
circles, including from some Republican
leaders who view mask requirements as a
threat to personal liberty.
Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, who
announced this week that he was suspend-
ing all local mask mandates, filed a lawsuit
Thursday challenging the authority of lead-
ers in Atlanta to require masks inside their
city’s limits. As the mayor of Atlanta, the
suit said, Keisha Lance Bottoms “does not
have the legal authority to modify, change
or ignore Governor Kemp’s orders,” only to
carry them out.
And in Oklahoma, Gov. Kevin Stitt said
this week that he remained opposed to a
mask order, even after he became the first
governor known to test positive for the virus.
“You can’t pick and choose what freedoms
you are going to give people,” Stitt said dur-
ing the Zoom call on which he announced
his positive test.
Masks have been broadly accepted in
many European and Asian countries. Britain
and France issued nationwide mask orders
for certain public places this week, joining
a long list of nations that already required
them.
But in the United States, there was initially
confusion and shifting guidance over masks.
The issue became politicized when, even as
the Centers for Disease Control and Preven-
tion began urging Americans to wear face
coverings, President Donald Trump stressed
that the measure was voluntary and said that
he did not think he was “going to be doing it.”
Continued on page 6 ->
thrillers.
“The stakes are higher than ever,” David
Nides, a health care cyberspecialist at KPMG
in Chicago, said in an interview. “There’s a
race for a vaccine or a treatment, and the
prize is huge for whoever comes out on
top.”
Concerns over global access to vaccines
have escalated in recent months. In May,
Sanofi Chief Executive Officer Paul Hudson
said Americans would likely get the French
company’s COVID-19 vaccine before the rest
of the world if it proved successful, because
the U.S. was first in line to fund its research.
Later, Sanofi said its vaccine would be avail-
able to everyone.
That prompted other countries and
groups like the European Union to try to
catch up — mostly by pooling funds for
deals of their own or by lobbying for equi-
table access.
There are more than 160 vaccine projects
underway at companies and research organi-
zations around the world. China’s President
Xi Jinping has pledged to turn any vaccine
developed by the country into a global pub-
lic good — even as the country’s CanSino
Biologics Inc. has already administered a
shot to some Chinese soldiers.
Health care companies and organizations
have long been considered prime targets for
cyberattacks, in part because of relatively lax
security, a large number of access points and
devices that can be penetrated. The value of
Continued on page 6 ->

INSIDE TODAY
NATIONAL 2 OPINION 8
ACCJ calls for equal treatment of expatriates
BUSINESS 3 TELEVISION 9
REGIONAL 4 SPORTS 10 MAGDALENA OSUMI
WORLD 5-7 STAFF WRITER
WEATHER 7 they be prevented from coming back home.
The head of an American business lobby
group in Japan has urged the government to
ensure equal treatment of its non-Japanese
residents, who have been affected by the
nation’s strict restrictions on re-entering the
country as part of measures implemented to
curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Christopher LaFleur, chairman of the
American Chamber of Commerce in Japan
(ACCJ), joined in calls for Japanese authori-
ties to allow foreign nationals with estab-
lished residency status and their immediate
Lab techs hold their own family to depart and enter the country on the
As infections grew, Gifu testing center went it same basis as Japanese nationals.
alone before help came “What we are asking is that the rules gov-
REGIONAL, PAGE 4 erning travel out of and back to Japan by
its residents are established on a consistent
Coronavirus outbreak updates and equitable basis,” LaFleur told The Japan
Times in an interview Thursday.
For news and reference
Japan’s entry ban, which was first imposed
information about the on April 3 and now applies to those trav-
COVID-19 outbreak, see eling from or via 129 countries, has been
our special dedicated web blasted by the nation’s expatriate commu-
page: jtimes.jp/covid19 nity for leaving hundreds of foreign nation-
als with legal residency status in the country
stranded abroad — or in fear of leaving lest
In contrast, Japanese nationals traveling
from abroad are only required to undergo
tests for the novel coronavirus and self-iso-
late for 14 days after their return.
“We would argue that the same conditions
applied to the foreign community would not
increase Japan’s risk whatsoever and there-
fore would be a more equitable arrange-
ment,” the former Deputy Chief of Mission
at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said.
LaFleur said the limitations on re-entry
and a lack of clarity about when and under
what conditions the restrictions would be
lifted have affected a large number of Amer-
ican businesses and its citizens working in
Japan.
“So definitely people in the ACCJ, just as in
the business community as a whole in Japan,
are feeling the effects of this crisis,” he said.
In a statement released by the ACCJ earlier
in July, LaFleur called for the government to
adopt the approach of other G7 countries
and allow foreign nationals with established
residency status and their immediate family
members to depart and enter the country on
the same basis as Japanese nationals.
The group has expressed concerns that
application of the entry ban to foreign
nationals who have a permanent abode,
family and work base in Japan is detrimental
to the country’s long-term interests, “in par-
ticular as to Japan’s attractiveness as a place
to invest and station managerial employees
Christopher LaFleur  with regional responsibility.”
ACCJ He explained that the pandemic has taken
its toll on many ACCJ members involved in
‘(Japan’s) providing information or technical services,
hotel operations and construction, as well
policy ... as travel businesses and other ventures, and
certainly is that the negative effects of the epidemic had
not going to been exacerbated by the travel limitations.
help Japan LaFleur added that in many cases ability
win more to travel is directly related to the ability of
foreign business owners and workers in Japan to
operate and continue to operate effectively
investment or in its society.
business.’ He noted that allowing foreign residents
back into the country is “in the best inter-
ests of Japan” given that foreign nationals
who are consumers and taxpayers are active
Continued on page 3 ->

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