3 ms·

I can[1], it reached the HN frontpage a while ago. As to concrete evidence, I obviously don't have it but it might be hard to acquire: > The ministry has admit

I can[1], it reached the HN frontpage a while ago. As to concrete evidence, I obviously don't have it but it might be hard to acquire: > The ministry has admitted tampering with paperwork to make it tally with testimony given in parliament, and on Wednesday admitted orders were given to destroy documents for the same reason, according to a document distributed to reporters by opposition lawmaker Osaka. And it's not as if I would believe the figures anyway, from [3]: > According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, there were some 3,700 “unaccompanied deaths” in Japan in 2013. However, other experts estimate the number is nearer 30,000 a year. Why is there such a disparity between the figures academics are claiming which would embarass the government and those that the government are claiming? How are we supposed to measure the impact of COVID-19 with such low testing and no idea what the expected death tally to have been? It's not as if things like that are isolated cases of government numbers going awry. I ask myself, would the Japan government go ahead with something even if it endangered large numbers of people but brought money or prestige? The answer appears to be yes[4]. > They based their claim on a 2002 report in which government experts estimated there was a one in five chance of a magnitude-8 earthquake occurring and triggering a powerful tsunami within the next 30 years. > At the time of the disaster, Japan’s nuclear regulator was severely criticised for its collusive ties with the nuclear industry, resulting in the formation of a new watchdog that has imposed stricter criteria for the restart of nuclear reactors that were shut down in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. So, in the face of all that (and more) I'm of the opinion that they were doing their best not to scupper the Olympics. I'm willing to be proven wrong but I'm not going to wait for absolute proof to fall in my lap, I'm not sentencing anyone to prison. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22728674 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22728674 [2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-23/japan-ministry-releases-scandal-papers-it-said-were-destroyed https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-23/japan-min... [3] https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/06/kodokushi-in-aging-japan-thousands-die-alone-and-unnoticed-every-year-their-bodies-often-go-unnoticed-for-weeks.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/06/kodokushi-in-agi... [4] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/17/japanese-government-liable-negligence-fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-disaster https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/17/japanese-gover... Edit: missed off a reference number.

freetime2 6y ago
Your first citation complains about incompetence in the presentation of data, but does not suggest any sort of attempt at a coverup. Your last three citations have nothing to do with covid. They are about a real-estate scandal involving Prime Minister Abe, an article from 2015 about people dying alone, and an article from 2017 about the Fukushima nuclear disaster. There is nothing remotely convincing here to back up your assertions that the government is hiding something. Furthermore, if there were more people dying from covid than official records suggest, you would see it show up as excess mortality. But Japan has seen very little excess mortality in 2020. [1] [1] https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.09.20143164v8 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.09.20143164v...
- brigandish 6y ago
  > Your last three citations have nothing to do with covid. They wouldn't. The subject of my comment is the government's competence and trustworthiness with respect to COVID-19. > Furthermore, if there were more people dying from covid than official records suggest, you would see it show up as excess mortality. But Japan has seen very little excess mortality in 2020 Strange, because one of my “last 3 citations that have nothing to do with covid” addresses that point. Number 3. > How are we supposed to measure the impact of COVID-19 with such low testing and no idea what the expected death tally to have been? Now to the part you definitely read: > Your first citation complains about incompetence in the presentation of data, but does not suggest any sort of attempt at a coverup. That incompetence is part of a pattern of behaviour (which was the point of those "nothing to do with covid" citations) that, if I were a cynical man, would almost appear designed to make it difficult to hold the government to account, of which there is also a pattern of behaviour[1]: > Not in dispute is Abe’s aggressive campaign against press freedom. > Japan plunged from 22nd to 66th in the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index over the course of [Abe's] second premiership This in particular may account for the lack of a smoking gun: > The 2014 Protection of Specially Designated Secrets Act weakened freedom of information rights and criminalized whistleblowing. Government bureaucrats could face up to 10 years imprisonment for leaking state secrets, while journalists who published such secrets could face five years in jail. The article is a long and damning indictment of the way Abe's government (and Suga is included too) has restricted press freedom. So we have a government that is: - ostensibly incompetent in the way it supplies data and information - aggressively and illegally restricts information leaks - openly bullies the media into silence - has ignored huge dangers to the public before, in pursuit of money or prestige But you say we should ignore all of this because it's got "nothing to do with covid"? No, I'm not going to do that as I share the mayor of Futuba's[2] impression, "I strongly mistrust the government". As I wrote previously, I'm not sending anyone to prison so I don't need to meet a ridiculous standard of proof. If Abe and his minions were on trial then I would, and they probably should be for several things if not this. [1] https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/after-abe-will-press-freedom-improve-in-japan/ https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/after-abe-will-press-freedom... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futaba,_Fukushima https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futaba,_Fukushima

freetime2 6y ago

Your first citation complains about incompetence in the presentation of data, but does not suggest any sort of attempt at a coverup. Your last three citations have nothing to do with covid. They are about a real-estate scandal involving Prime Minister Abe, an article from 2015 about people dying alone, and an article from 2017 about the Fukushima nuclear disaster. There is nothing remotely convincing here to back up your assertions that the government is hiding something. Furthermore, if there were more people dying from covid than official records suggest, you would see it show up as excess mortality. But Japan has seen very little excess mortality in 2020. [1] [1] https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.09.20143164v8 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.09.20143164v...

brigandish 6y ago
> Your last three citations have nothing to do with covid. They wouldn't. The subject of my comment is the government's competence and trustworthiness with respect to COVID-19. > Furthermore, if there were more people dying from covid than official records suggest, you would see it show up as excess mortality. But Japan has seen very little excess mortality in 2020 Strange, because one of my “last 3 citations that have nothing to do with covid” addresses that point. Number 3. > How are we supposed to measure the impact of COVID-19 with such low testing and no idea what the expected death tally to have been? Now to the part you definitely read: > Your first citation complains about incompetence in the presentation of data, but does not suggest any sort of attempt at a coverup. That incompetence is part of a pattern of behaviour (which was the point of those "nothing to do with covid" citations) that, if I were a cynical man, would almost appear designed to make it difficult to hold the government to account, of which there is also a pattern of behaviour[1]: > Not in dispute is Abe’s aggressive campaign against press freedom. > Japan plunged from 22nd to 66th in the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index over the course of [Abe's] second premiership This in particular may account for the lack of a smoking gun: > The 2014 Protection of Specially Designated Secrets Act weakened freedom of information rights and criminalized whistleblowing. Government bureaucrats could face up to 10 years imprisonment for leaking state secrets, while journalists who published such secrets could face five years in jail. The article is a long and damning indictment of the way Abe's government (and Suga is included too) has restricted press freedom. So we have a government that is: - ostensibly incompetent in the way it supplies data and information - aggressively and illegally restricts information leaks - openly bullies the media into silence - has ignored huge dangers to the public before, in pursuit of money or prestige But you say we should ignore all of this because it's got "nothing to do with covid"? No, I'm not going to do that as I share the mayor of Futuba's[2] impression, "I strongly mistrust the government". As I wrote previously, I'm not sending anyone to prison so I don't need to meet a ridiculous standard of proof. If Abe and his minions were on trial then I would, and they probably should be for several things if not this. [1] https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/after-abe-will-press-freedom-improve-in-japan/ https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/after-abe-will-press-freedom... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futaba,_Fukushima https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futaba,_Fukushima