Photo/Illutration A sign placed in a show window of the Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo’s Ginza district on April 8 says the store is temporarily closed. (The Asahi Shimbun)

The Japanese version of the Russian folk song “Week,” which many learned at school, is a little baffling, come to think of it.

The lyrics go: “I heat the bath on Monday/ I take the bath on Tuesday.”

The water should certainly be cold when one gets in the bath. The song makes me feel mystified.

On April 6, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he planned to declare a state of emergency.

I thought calls for stores and restaurants to close would be issued immediately in Tokyo and other urban areas. But such requests did not take effect until April 11.

The authorities were acting in a leisurely manner, not unlike the Russian whose week is described in the folk song.

The fact is the Tokyo metropolitan government planned to issue requests, but the central government blocked the move.

Central government officials asked the Tokyo metropolitan government to wait for two weeks until they could assess the effects of the request for people to stay home, according to sources.

That means another week might have passed before requests were made for stores and restaurants to close.

Central government officials appear to be concerned not only about the economic impact of the measure, but also about the possibility that national taxpayers’ money might have to be used to compensate for business closures.

Normalcy bias means people tend to think things will work, even in an emergency, just as they do in normal times.

For example, one might think it would be OK to accept an invitation to a drinking party, as it feels too uncomfortable to decline.

The central government appears to be trapped by this bias at the moment.

The state of emergency declared by the prime minister has been criticized by Western media for lacking punishment for violations, nor being legally enforceable.

True, Japan’s system may be based on a soft-line approach, but it has its own strengths.

The system is designed to prevent the spread of the infection without rigorously restricting people’s freedom of movement. Its effectiveness depends on each individual’s sensible judgment and behavior.

The top executives of four department store chains were summoned and rebuked by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry after they decided to close their stores.

Ministry officials were angry on the grounds that the companies acted on their own before the government officially declared a state of emergency.

The ministry’s response to the companies that moved quickly to contain the spread of the virus is, like the song, simply baffling.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 12

* * *

Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.