Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

Ten years ago, in the aftermath of the Great Tohoku Earthquake, the Japanese economy faced a brief slump that was attributed as much to the behavior of the Japanese general public as damages by the Quake itself. Due to the devastating nature of the Quake, many Japanese people took upon themselves for "self-restraint" (自粛) on entertainment-related spending, canceling parties, outings, and other leisure activities as a display of respect toward the thousands who perished in the Quake.

The success of the world in tackling COVID often depends on access to personal data. When authorities find a person who tests positive for the virus, it often becomes essential to be able to know who the person has come into contact in the past weeks and where s/he has been, so that contact tracing enables more testing that can prevent the emergence of clustered infections. Such successful contact tracing requires the tested individuals to reveal some very personal details about their lifestyles.

"No Masks, No Service." As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, the wearing of surgical masks in public has increasingly a global norm, spreading beyond the confines of East Asia where it has been used for decades to mark colds and other potentially contagious illnesses. As scientists around the world shift from recommending not just essential health workers, but everyone to wear masks, their ubiquity, and level of general acceptance have increased, despite some continued resistance.

As Tokyo declares the second state of emergency for the ever-increasing number of cases of COVID-19 in the greater metropolitan area, one of the focal points of the lasting long-term damage from the policy may be education. In a nation that is already facing a steadily declining and aging population, with an ever-lower number of births before COVID, any government signaling that the pandemic is not completely under control is only going to dampen the enthusiasm of its young citizens reproducing. The possibilities of offsprings facing interrupted education and a not-so-vibrant economy in which jobs are difficult to find will only further the deterrence.

The biggest news of the year that just passed is no doubt the global spread of COVID-19. Media outlets and people around the world have over time became front and center in a historical moment, as a global pandemic, unprecedented in the lifetimes of most of today's residents on Earth, ravaged nations and economies around the world, disrupting everyday life. As different states came face-to-face with the speed with which the virus claimed the lives of their citizens, the media coverage increasingly centered on how the disease seemed to take on different trajectories in different places, hurting some countries much more than others.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the world, more and more consumers are shunning the potential dangers of brick-and-mortar stores in favor of their online alternatives. Major e-commerce platforms, along with their counterparts peddling everything from inter-personal communication to insurance products, have become the primary beneficiaries of the pandemic era. Yet, as their market values hit one record high after another, the global world of "big tech" is also facing unprecedented scrutiny as governments around the world finally begin to grasp and rein in their influence.

It is no longer news that Japan's provincial areas are facing a steep long-term decline , as the country's overall population decreases and ever-more opportunities for work and high living standards become concentrated in Tokyo. As provincial areas face a steady decline in population, the local tax base, proportional to the declining number of people and businesses that make the locality their permanent home, is also declining in tandem. With the same areas facing ballooning costs from pensions and healthcare as the population ages, the fiscal shortfall threatens to break the fragile balance of payments for the local governments.