Yes, the headline was rather shocking to me! What a misleading article, it's very disappointing. I know folks in Japan and life is anything but normal there. T

Yes, the headline was rather shocking to me! What a misleading article, it's very disappointing. I know folks in Japan and life is anything but normal there. They didn't need a "lockdown" because of Japan's strong culture of conformity, and people take recommended precautions seriously. Restaurants closed, schools closed, parks empty, everyone wearing masks, lots of social distancing. The scale of the public's participation vastly exceeds that of the west -- there are little to no "nay-sayers" or people ignoring the rules. It makes a pretty big difference, evidently. Anyone speculating that "Japan did less than the West and had an easier time how bizarre" is missing the forest for the trees.