Photo/Illutration Shigeru Omi, the chairman of the government's expert panel, answers questions during a news conference at the Cabinet building in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on May 14. (Koichi Ueda)

Stories in both the West and the East about the weak fighting back against a powerful common enemy usually tell how important it is to stand together to defeat the mighty.

In “Town Musicians of Bremen,” a donkey, a hound, a cat and a rooster, which all have seen better days and outlived their usefulness, come together and scare robbers away by creating a din.

In the Japanese folktale “Saru kani gassen” (The Crab and the Monkey), young crabs, with the help of some allies including a chestnut and a bee, take revenge on a bullying monkey, which caused the death of their parent.

A rebellion reminiscent of such stories recently took place in connection with the government’s latest COVID-19 response plan.

It concerns the government’s abrupt decision to add Hokkaido, Okayama and Hiroshima to the list of prefectures under the COVID-19 state of emergency in an about-face on its original plan to apply only the quasi-emergency pandemic response program known as “man-en boshi” to these prefectures.

When the government on May 14 presented the original plan to the expert panel advising it on its pandemic response, many panel members took exception, forcing the government to change it.

According to an Asahi Shimbun story on what happened, the experts held an unofficial online meeting the previous night and discussed how they should respond to the proposal. They clearly viewed the measures the government was about to propose as too weak and decided not to approve them.

The experts deserve applause for their bold action. What is troubling is the fact that they, scientists not politicians, had to hold a kind of secret meeting to plan their move in advance.

It was probably due to them having many frustrating experiences in which their spontaneously expressed views and opinions just fell on deaf ears.

One expert voiced his sense of crisis in another way. Shigeru Omi, the chairman of the government's expert panel, said in late April that the government should decide on whether to proceed with the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics by assessing the level of strain placed on the nation’s health care system.

While Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and other top administration officials have refused to discuss the option of canceling the events, Omi did a good job of underscoring the harsh reality of the pandemic and its serious implications for the Summer Games.

Let me suggest that the government should clarify all the medical resources needed to hold the huge sports events and ask for the panel’s opinion about the viability of holding them.

My guess is that the government is too afraid to do so since it can't be sure what the experts would say.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 16

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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.

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