Getting the Jab Done
Set to speak at the Club this month, Japan’s former vaccine czar reflects on the country’s handling of the pandemic.
Last year was quite a ride for Taro Kono (pictured). In January, the outspoken politician was put in charge of Japan’s Covid-19 vaccination program.
As the deaths mounted, he faced criticism for the speed of the vaccine rollout, which lagged well behind many Western countries, including the United States.
In an interview with INTOUCH last summer, Kono described his struggles with securing sufficient supplies of the vaccine from overseas and streamlining the bureaucratic process of getting shots into arms. At the same time, the government was trying to reduce the spread of the virus through its state-of-emergency measures, including mandating the early closure of bars and restaurants, something not all establishments followed.
“The Japanese government does not have the authority to do lockdowns like European governments can, nor could it tell doctors what to do,” says the Club Member, who now serves as the Liberal Democratic Party’s communications chief after losing last September’s party leadership race to Fumio Kishida. “In some cities, if the mayor wasn’t able to work with the doctors’ association there, the vaccination [rollout] lagged behind. So we had to bring in temporary outside doctors.”
Kono, 59, is no stranger to reforming medical care in Japan. He helped to change Japan’s organ transplant law after donating part of his liver to his father, longtime House of Representatives speaker Yohei Kono, in 2002 (he was first elected to the lower house in 1996).
More recently, he has directed barbs at Japan’s health ministry for what he says were needless delays in vaccine approval. Having also served as the minister for administrative and regulatory reform during the crisis, Kono notes that Japan’s complex bureaucratic procedures dogged response efforts. Even now, when doctors discover a coronavirus case, they must fill out a form and send it by fax to the relevant authorities.
While the country’s strict border-control measures were effective, Kono says, they were unjustifiable once the omicron variant began to spread in Japan.
“Omicron doesn’t know if you are Japanese or American or British,” says Kono. “We discriminated against foreigners. It doesn’t make sense…students and businesspeople could not come into Japan. It wasn’t scientific at all.”
Still, Japan has seen around 25,000 deaths during the course of the pandemic, far fewer than most large countries. It has fared better than nearly all of the 20 most affected nations, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Whether that is down to government policies, Japan’s culture of conformity or another factor will continue to fuel debate.
“I’ve been foreign and defense minister, which were challenging, as well as minister in charge of disaster management when we had the Kumamoto earthquake. But being vaccine minister, people see the result right in front of their eyes, so the pressure was much higher,” says Kono. “With the first two vaccine shots, I think we prevented seniors from getting killed by the delta variant, so I could say we were successful.”
TAC Talk: Taro Kono
April 13 | 7–8pm
Words: Tim Hornyak
