Researchers Try to Determine Why Japan Has Such a Low Spread of COVID

Japan’s low COVID case numbers is finally catching the attention of researchers:

As the omicron variant surges around the world, Japan’s overall coronavirus cases and deaths have been plummeting. And no one seems to know exactly why.

Call it the hunt for a potential “X factor,” such as genetics, that may explain the trend and inform how Japan could deal with the next wave. While the new highly transmissible omicron variant has appeared in the country and experts suspect there is already some community spread, the overall transmission rate of the virus and coronavirus-related deaths in Japan have remained low.

“Honestly, we do not know the exact reason behind the sudden drop in covid deaths in Japan,” said Taro Yamamoto, professor of global health at Nagasaki University’s Institute of Tropical Medicine.

Washington Post

According to the article Japan has ranged from 60-200 daily COVID cases over the past month in a country of 127 million people. Compared to Korea a country of 51 million that over the past month has had daily case counts from 5,000-7000+. The article goes on to discuss why South Korea and Japan are having such different case numbers:

Japan has now vaccinated most of its population and has widespread masking, which may explain the current low numbers. But so does neighboring South Korea, where authorities are rescinding reopening plans because of a spike in infections and record numbers of serious and critical cases. And Japan has barely begun rolling out its booster shots, lagging behind other countries in the region, including South Korea.

“Obviously vaccination, masking and social distancing are surely factors, but those alone cannot explain it, especially when comparing the situation to South Korea,” Yamamoto said. “It is unclear yet whether there is a factor X that exists specific to Japanese or East Asian people, but in determining this we hope it can help us to understand and control the virus.”

You can read more at the link, but lets wait a few months and see how omicron impacts Japan. If Japan is able to escape an omicron wave than I will be very impressed.