> 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 res

> 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