Denny in the News: 18 August 2021
Okinawa Prefecture calls for Covid-19 prevention with a “Remote Obon (festival of the dead)” with apps like LINE so even the family Buddhist shrine can be shown during conversations. Covid-19 contagion is widespread. So Okinawa, under the State of Emergency Declaration since last year, is looking forward to a quiet Old Obon (under the Chinese calendar) from 20 to 22 August. At a press conference on 17 August, Governor Denny Tamaki called for a “remote” Old Obon, using online and telephone for contact and refraining from visits to hometowns and relatives. Okinawa, which obviously has not stopped the spread of the virus, announced the “10 points to lessen 80% of human contact” suggested by the Health and Labor Ministry’s Government Covid-19 Expert Committee and is calling for people to rethink their daily lives as “Anybody at all can be contagious, so don’t let yourself be at risk.” The governor is promoting the very first point, “Make your trip back home online, with a video conver...