[JIJI] Covering PM’s Office Under the Threat of the Virus

By Yuichiro Nishigaki, Chief Writer, Jiji Prime Minister’s Office Team

It should go without saying that Japan is one of the countries that experienced an increase of corona virus cases in the early stage of the pandemic. As of June 30, 18,631 cases of infection have been confirmed in Japan in total, though the death toll remains at 972, a relatively low number among nations suffering from the virus. The past five months have been very tough for us reporting the news, too. I am fortunate enough to be a chief writer of the 12-journalist team which covers the Prime Minister’s Office at this critical moment. It wasn’t long before I found some friends who work for other media companies evacuate the densely populated press room on the 1st floor of the Prime Minister's office, a possible hotbed for the virus. The Japanese government has asked every person living in Japan to cut their social contacts by 80%. In the wake of this announcement, people disappeared from the streets, and Tokyo became like a ghost town. The infamous packed Japanese commuter trains got surprisingly sparse since many people refrained from going to office. Every morning, I heard the municipal government telling citizens loudly from public speakers to stay home to protect their loved ones. In the Prime Minister’s office, they installed infrared thermographs at all gates, so that they could detect people with fever and ask them not to go in. They asked us to limit the number of writers attending daily press conferences and briefings to a single person per an affiliate. Everything got unusual. I felt as if I was living in a city during a war. I really wanted to let my colleagues evacuate the press room to protect themselves, but, at the same time, that was something I felt I shouldn’t do. Why? It is because Jiji Press is one of two news agencies which are tasked to cover the Prime Minister at all times --24/7/365-- known among the media corps as "death watchers," who need to be able to report immediately if something were to happen. Still, I had no choice but to change our cover arrangement. I decided to divide the team strictly into two as soon as Japanese government declared the state of emergency on April 7. I asked every team member to never meet a colleague from the other team so that we could continue to write stories even if one of us got unfortunately infected. It turned out to be unimaginably costly, since it prevented us from chatting and discussing various topics on daily basis. We could not grab beers together after work. I have to confess that it made me a little depressed. But my teammates did not sink under this heavy burden. I am proud that we, as a team, got various historical scoops during this painful time. We reported first that the Japanese government was going to lift the state of emergency all over the country, while breaking a story that a top prosecutor was resigning. I could not thank my team members more. Now that the state of emergency is lifted, we are concentrating to report the Japanese government’s strategy against the possible 2nd wave of Covid-19. We will do everything we can to keep a constant check on the government as we have done before, hoping to contribute to the fight to eventually defeat the deadly virus at the same time. END Reporters, distanced from each other for Covid-19 prevention, raise their hands to ask questions to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, back center, at a news conference at his office in Tokyo, Japan,