The <Three Cs> of Japan’s Pandemic Response as an Ideograph

Abstract

While the COVID-19 pandemic soared across the world and changed the political dynamics on a global scale, Japan was viewed by some news sources as a “miracle” exception that beat the anticipated projections by experts of how the virus would affect the nation. Though there are a number of potential guesses about Japan’s initial pandemic outcome, which include low numbers of testing, an existing culture of mask-wearing, sanitation, and certain degree of social distancing, the political environment and communication from the government have also been accredited to the so-called “success” of Japan’s pandemic experience. By using the concept of ideograph, this study rhetorically analyzes the key slogan that emerged from Japanese political discourse surrounding the COVID-19 situation: 3つの密 - Mittsu no Mitsu (The Three Cs). Specifically, the authors conclude the ways in which &amp;lt; Three Cs &amp;gt; function as a negative ideograph in this specific rhetorical context. By doing so, the authors argue that this slogan that stems from political discourse became culture-bound and serves as a present-day ideological construction in the form of an ideograph for collective governance to (un)justify certain behaviors.

‘Loob’ and ‘labas’: Spatial constructions of safety and risk amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines

“…Meanwhile, in Japan, one of the government's principal public health policies has been the avoidance of the sanmitsu —the three Cs of closed spaces, crowded places, and close-contact settings—which, at least during the start of the pandemic, curiously omitted settings that were deemed essential to Japanese society, such as sentōs (public bathhouses) and “packed rush hour trains or buses” ( Hayasaki, 2020 , Para. 9; see also Allgayer and Kanemoto, 2021 ). Such responses reveal an embedded, cultural dimension to public health policy that negates the idea of a single, scientific way of tackling the pandemic, asserting instead that what is legitimated as scientific is often also a cultural construction.…”

Novel indicator for the spread of new coronavirus disease 2019 and its association with human mobility in Japan

“…In Japan, the government introduced the slogan the "Three Cs," which referred to the recommendation to avoid "closed spaces with poor ventilation, " "crowded places with many people nearby, " and "close-contact settings, such as close-range, " and recommended that the public incorporate basic infection www.nature.com/scientificreports/ prevention measures into their lifestyles. As evidenced by the highest rate of mask use worldwide 16 , the Japanese population was disciplined, and every citizen was prepared for infection control, which is considered a step toward an era of living with COVID-19 17 . In addition, the first mutant strain of the SARS-COV-2 virus to attract worldwide attention, VOC-202012/01, showed an effective reproduction rate that was 43% to 90% higher than that of conventional strains but was not detected in Japan until December 25th, 2020 18,19 .…”