| This week, Japan Inc. jumped into the country's much-scrutinized vaccine rollout. The government is allowing the likes of carmaker Toyota, whisky producer Suntory and Softbank to pitch in and vaccinate its employees. The workplace effort is expected to help boost vaccinations in a country where less than 8% of its citizens are fully dosed. It's a much-anticipated process that could cover more than a tenth of the island nation's 126 million residents when it completes. The attitude toward getting vaccinated at work in Japan stands in striking contrast with places like the U.S.—where there's a debate over whether employers can even require vaccinations for staff to return to the office—or Hong Kong, which is pressuring private businesses to help raise vaccine uptake.  Face masks are widespread in Tokyo. Photographer: Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images AsiaPac In Japan, companies have always played an outsized role in their employees' lives, including their health planning, and workers are comfortable with that reality. Corporations typically provide part of the social safety net for their employees: many are still employed for life, annual health checks are provided for, and sometimes housing support is offered. Large companies are required by law to keep doctors on staff, and some even have their own hospitals for employees. As an American, it was jarring when I first moved to Tokyo to go in for my annual company physical. I remember standing in what felt like a factory line among other office workers, waiting to get my blood taken, my vision checked and my echocardiogram done. Now, every fall, it has become a routine. Workplace vaccinations may even help with potential hesitancy—one observer of corporate Japan told me that having the company offer shots could be perceived by workers as vouching for the safety of the vaccine. Still, the initial program in Japan is limited to large companies with more than 1,000 employees. That leaves out small and medium-sized enterprises, which employ the bulk of Japan's workforce and part-time or contract workers—potentially setting the scene for issues of inequitable access later on. And some say the workplace rollout needs to move even faster and cover more people, if the bet is that using the largest companies will add fuel to the vaccination drive, especially as the controversial Tokyo Olympics is just a month away.—Lisa Du | 
Post a Comment