The problem is that as far as we know about 15% of the people who get infected with covid-19 require intensive care. Combine that with the fact that covid-19 is

The problem is that as far as we know about 15% of the people who get infected with covid-19 require intensive care. Combine that with the fact that covid-19 is very easily transmissible (even from people who show no symptoms) plus the size of a megalopolis such as Tokyo and things could get really ugly really, really fast. No government has tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of hospital beds at the ready in order to handle such a scenario (and this is also why the Chinese had to resort to putting sick people in sports halls and the like). There’s also the very ugly fact that most probably half of the health workers directly involved will also get infected in the first 3 or 4 weeks, at which point you’d need to have a fresh batch of new doctors and nurses easily available from the outside.