February 13, 2020

Amid growing concern over the new coronavirus pandemic, a video has gone viral where Japanese Communist Party Vice Chair Tamura Tomoko at a Diet meeting last year criticized the government for continuing to cut the number of staff and the budget of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.

The video shows Tamura’s deliberation at the House of Councilors Cabinet Committee meeting on April 9, 2019. A Twitter user shared this video on February 8, immediately attracting much attention. As of 5 p.m. on February 12, the video was viewed more than 670,000 times. “If only the government had sincerely listened and responded to her at that time!” was one of the twitter reactions.

In the video, Tamura pointed out that the Abe government has allocated less and less financial and human resources to the national institute which plays a key role in the government’s measures to prevent and fight epidemics. She noted that the budget for the institute is now two billion yen less than that was ten years ago. Tamura stressed, “If the deterioration of the institute’s organizational strength continues, this will pose a serious threat to public health and people’s lives.”

Regarding the video, Author Morita Ryuji tweeted that the government is now paying the price for having disregarded what Tamura said. Many other Twitter users have reacted in a similar way.

Past related article:
> JCP Koike demands countermeasures against new coronavirus [January 28, 2020]