Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

What’s behind Japan’s vaccine scepticism?

(Photo by PHILIP FONG/AFP via Getty Images)

Japan finally began its Covid-19 vaccination programme this week after a consignment of 60,000 vials arrived by charter flight from Europe. Medical staff will be first in line to be jabbed, followed by Japan’s innumerable seniors (presumably starting with the super-centenarians), then those with pre-existing conditions, and finally the general population. A rapid and successful roll out is seen as a last chance to save the summer Olympics and with it, probably, the government of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. But a whole host of problems is making that outcome look decidedly optimistic.

Firstly, there’s a shortage of syringes capable of extracting the full six shots from each vial: the standard syringes the Japanese government ordered can only draw out five, leaving a dribble of precious fluid behind. In the land where mottai nai (regret over waste) is an article of faith, and given that Japan’s contract with Pfizer guarantees doses for 72 million people (from a population of 126 million), this is a serious shortcoming. An effort has been mounted to ramp up production of six-shot syringes in Japan and Thailand, but it could take months.

There has been particular disquiet over the speed at which the Covid-19 vaccine has been produced

Japan is almost entirely reliant on overseas suppliers for vaccines and related equipment, having wound down its own production capacity over the last 50 years. Japanese pharmaceutical companies have been reluctant to maintain investment in a business usually focused on children, particularly given the country’s declining birth rate, and are consequently unprepared. A few domestic companies such as Shionogi and Daiichi Sankyo have been working on original vaccines but a market ready product is a distant speck on the horizon. And even when they do arrive, there is a lengthy and complicated approval process to negotiate.

Even if the supply issues could be resolved and administration streamlined, there is a level of vaccine scepticism in Japan that could hinder a mass inoculation programme.

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