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Coronavirus pandemic
This Week in AsiaOpinion
Elliot Silverberg
Elliot Silverberg

Opinion | Coronavirus silver lining for Japan: better ties with China?

  • The Covid-19 pandemic provides an opportunity for Shinzo Abe and his potential successors to showcase their political mettle
  • Unlike Donald Trump, Abe has refrained from blaming China to score cheap political points. In fact, the crisis has strengthened relations

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Despite domestic criticism for the way he has handled the coronavirus outbreak, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has maintained good relations with China, providing an opportunity to play an even bigger role as an international consensus-builder. Photo: DPA
Elliot Silverberg
There may be a silver lining to the Covid-19 pandemic for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose reputation as a capable leader is on the line.

Abe’s approach to combating the coronavirus has been viewed unfavourably compared to the responses by leaders in Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, and even Italy and the United States – where widespread testing, social distancing, and lockdowns are under way.

As coronavirus cases in Japan mounted, early opposition fault-finding with Abe gave way to general excoriation of his leadership.

Abe’s critics – including prominent ones like former Tokyo governor and health minister Yoichi Masuzoe – have described his response as clumsy and politicised, while his administration has been accused of allowing medical professionals to run short on essential supplies and not moving faster to postpone the Olympics.
Former Tokyo governor Yoichi Masuzoe is a critic of Abe. Photo: AFP
Former Tokyo governor Yoichi Masuzoe is a critic of Abe. Photo: AFP

Some polls briefly showed domestic confidence in Abe slipping to 18-month lows.

But despite this torrent of criticism, a competing narrative has begun to form around Abe’s handling of the Covid-19 outbreak, as Japan appears to “flatten its curve” better than most countries. A country of 127 million with the oldest population in the world, Japan has had 52 deaths so far – significantly fewer than in China, Italy, Iran, Spain, France, the United States, and even the United Kingdom and South Korea.

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