Japan—With Opposition To Olympics Rising—Has Only A 2% Covid Vaccination Rate. Here’s Why.

Japan—With Opposition To Olympics Rising—Has Only A 2% Covid Vaccination Rate. Here’s Why.

Share to Linkedin Japan is moving to ramp up distribution of coronavirus vaccines as the country prepares to host the Tokyo Olympics in less than 100 days, but a slow rollout compounded by the Japanese public's long-held distrust of vaccines threatens to exacerbate public opposition to holding the Summer Games. A health worker gave Kakino Yamaguchi a dose of the PFizer vaccine in Nagano Prefecture last month. Japan has been largely successful in preventing the spread of coronavirus compared to other countries; even with a recent rise in cases, Japan has reported only about 5, 000 infections per million people since the beginning of the pandemic, far lower than countries like the U. S., France and the U. K., which have counted tens of thousands per million. The relatively low rate of transmission has reduced urgency on vaccination, but the campaign is also being held back by Japan's tense and troubled history with vaccines and low public trust in immunizations. Japan has one of the lowest rates of confidence in vaccines in the world, with a 2020 Lancet study finding only 30% of Japanese strongly agreed that vaccines are safe and effective, while a survey last year by public broadcaster