Русский
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Japan, the Japanese government has attempted to orchestrate a coherent nationwide response to the public health crisis, but with mixed results. In the following, I examine the government’s COVID-19 response from January 2020, when the first cases were reported, to March 3 of this year, when Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide announced another extension of the state of emergency for the Tokyo region. After a brief description of the legal framework for government action in such a crisis, I offer a chronological account of steps taken by two successive administrations, the Abe administration and the Suga administration, and the obstacles they encountered at the local level owing to systemic constraints on the prime minister’s powers in responding to the pandemic crisis.