We are living in Japan and observing the situation and responses worldwide through social media and friends about lockdown and quarantine. Everyone asks me how is the situation in Japan and what actions are being taken to prevent the infection. I am sharing my experience as living in Nagoya, the third most populated city in Japan.

Let me first start with the normal life here in Japan before COVID19 Pandemic.

1. Normally more than half of people the people you come across are wearing masks everyday for many personal reasons.
2. In almost 80 percent of the places you will visit, you will see a big bottle pump of 80% alcohol (sanitizer) on your side as you enter.
3. In many public toilets you will get an option of a wipe with sanitizer to clean your toilet seat before use.
4. You will get a wet wipe with any eatable you purchase at the convenience store.
5. People prefer social distancing in normal life and most of them live alone.
6. Shaking hands, hugging, holding hands or any such affection is seen rarely here. People greet you from a distance with a slight bow.
7. You will not see many people except of the public places.
8. During the first three years of education, the kids are taught about hygiene, respect for nature and keep their atmosphere clean.

Life amidst COVID19:

It appeared in Japan around mid january 2020,

The first action taken towards it was around the end of February 2020 by keeping schools closed till April 2020. All other things remained the same, no change in daily life. Summer Olympics 2020 postponed to 2021. Seeing the increase in numbers it was declared an emergency. Closing of Narita Airport due to a loss of 85 % traffic.

Shortage of toilet rolls, sanitizers and other hygiene stuff at supermarkets for some time. Which came to normal after a few weeks.

On 31 March, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo declared emergency for Tokyo.

On 16 April Prime Minister Abe Shinzo declared Nationwide emergency. He requested people to avoid unnecessary outings. Bars, Karaoke, Movie Theatres, to remain closed while restaurants and shopping malls are still open. Work from home if possible. I hardly notice the distance kept at the waiting queue at counters, I just noticed it last day(15 April) at the convenience that they have started keeping a plastic veil between customer and salesperson and made circles on the floor for maintaining the distance between people( I wished it had started very earlier). The people who can follow the emergency are staying home mostly. Since most of the places are open and for many people, their work is not flexible to be done at home, the routine is the same for them, and most people use public transport for travel, there is not much difference in traffic at transport. Japan is an expensive country and people are worried not to lose their job and work culture is quite tough here. I read about some big companies providing their employees to work from home or just stay home with no work while getting paid. On the other hand, despite the emergency, Most of the people have to go to work even if positive cases are found in the same building. Many people have lost their jobs and some are stuck with no resources.

We are following self-quarantine since the beginning of the outbreak as a self precaution for our health while no steps were taken here against the safety measure here.

While the numbers were low here a month ago but it has increased drastically since last few weeks. I doubt that there are many more cases than reported. I hope everyone around the world stays safe.

Life has not changed a lot here, but I am not sure the situation is as normal as it seems and I wish for more firm action by the government. While people follow hygiene as much as possible, but many things can not be avoided without proper guidelines like traffic at restaurants, supermarkets, and public places.

That was my personal experience as living and observing day to day life here. It may vary from person to person

Take care and stay safe.

Lots of love

Yogu