Southeast Asian delta wave drives Japan to reclaim expats
JAKARTA/SINGAPORE -- As the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus tears through much of Southeast Asia, Japanese companies and authorities are moving to get Japanese nationals back home. At noon on Friday local time, the Japanese Embassy in Indonesia stopped taking requests for seats on chartered flights to Japan for citizens living in the country, with nearly 2,000 people hoping to get on board. All Nippon Airways is set to begin flights Wednesday, followed by Japan Airlines on July 25.
The rapidly deteriorating conditions in Indonesia, now suffering from the world's worst COVID-19 outbreak, and other countries experiencing record waves of cases have spurred a flight to safety -- and forced many manufacturers to cut back their operations.
At the same time, Japan is sending vaccines to Asia. Taiwan, Vietnam and Indonesia each received an additional 1 million doses under plans announced this week by Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, bringing their approximate cumulative totals to 3.37 million, 3.1 million and 2 million doses.
Indonesia's seven-day rolling average of new daily infections reached 44,145 on Thursday, surpassing previous leader Brazil's, according to Our World in Data. Case counts hit new records on four straight days through Thursday, and the country on Friday reported 1,205 deaths in the past 24 hours, its highest tally so far. About 360 Japanese nationals had contracted the virus as of Friday, with 14 deaths, according to the embassy.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, IHI, Mitsubishi Electric, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi Corp. had all made the choice by Friday to have Japanese workers leave.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/Southeast-Asian-delta-wave-drives-Japan-to-reclaim-expats
So much for shifting supply chains from China to Southeast Asia.
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