Why Does Japan Have Far Fewer Coronavirus Infections than South Korea?

South Korea has had far more coronavirus infections than Japan and here is how one professor writing in the Korea Times explains it:

It’s been over two months since the outbreak of the Coronavirus, or COVID-19. As of March 9th, Japan has 1,198 confirmed patients (705 of which are aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship) with 14 deaths, while South Korea has 7,313 patients with 50 deaths. 

Why is there this huge difference in both patient numbers and deaths?  (….)

Largely missing from Japanese society are the incompetent hospitals, the gigantic protestant churches (280,000 followers), and the immense army bases (240,000 personnel) as super spreaders. Japanese hospitals do not have lenient visitation practices, making them free of mass infections. Given the small size in each church, no coronavirus outbreak has been reported among church goers. According to the Defense Department report of Feb. 25th, the military has also strictly cancelled all activities that involve inviting outsiders to maintain its full quarantine status.

Finally, the third difference is the large outbreak among women in their 20s in South Korea. This augurs the failure of South Korean society to fight mental depression among young women. The country has the world’s highest female suicide rate as of 2016 (14.1 suicides per 100,000 people). This is far higher than the third ranked Japan with 8 suicides per 100,000 people. Why so many women decide to take their own lives in South Korea is a complicated sociological issue. What is clear is that these women have no social support system other than the church.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but 63% of coronavirus patients in South Korea are women with many of them linked back to the Shincheonji church.