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Study-abroad in Japan under COVID-19: Emerging Parallels with a Course on Environmental Pollution
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
Abstract
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The Coronavirus hit Japan during our study-abroad semester in Kyoto. Here we present similarities in Japanese societal response to chemical pollutants throughout the long twentieth century and to COVID-19, as they became apparent to us through a chemistry course on Japanese industrial pollution.
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.- Copyright
- Copyright © The Authors 2020
References
Notes
1 Texts for our course included Chapter 4 in Walker, B.L. (2011) Toxic Archipelago: A History of Industrial Disease in Japan, University of Washington Press.
2 Texts included George, T.S. (2001) Minamata: Pollution and the Struggle for Democracy in Postwar Japan, Harvard University Asia Center; Chapter 2 in Upham, F.K. (1987) Law and Social Change in Japan, Harvard University; Chapter 4 in Huddle, N., Reich, M. & Stiskin, N. (1987) Island of Dreams, Schenkman Books.
3 Texts included Chapter 2 in Huddle, N., Reich, M. & Stiskin, N. (1987) Island of Dreams, Schenkman Books.
4 Texts included Chapter 3 in Kirby, P.W. (2011) Troubled Natures, University of Hawaii Press.
5 Wu, X., Nethery, R.C., Sabath, B.M., Braun, D. & Dominici, F. (2020) “Exposure to air pollution and COVID-19 mortality in the United States: A nationwide cross-sectional study”, medRxiv, 27 April (Accessed July 31, 2020).
6 Kaiman, J. (2013) “Chinese struggle through ‘airpocalypse’ smog,” The Guardian, 16 February.
7 Kaiman, J. (2013) “Chinese struggle through ‘airpocalypse’ smog,” The Guardian, 16 February.
8 Miyashita, L., Foley, G., Semple, S. & Grigg, J. (2020) “Traffic-derived particulate matter and angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 expression in human airway epithelial cells”, bioRxiv, 15 May (Accessed 31 July 2020).
9 Tessum, C.W., Apte, J.S., Goodkind, A.L., Muller, N.Z., Mullins, K.A., Paolella, D.A., Polasky, S., Springer, N.P., Thakrar, S.K., Marshall, J.D. & Hill, J.D. (2019) “Inequity in consumption of goods and services adds to racial-ethnic disparities in air pollution exposure,” PNAS 116, no. 13 (March 26): 6001-6006.
10 Muller, N.Z., Matthews, P.H. & Wiltshire-Gordon, V. (2018) “The distribution of income is worse than you think: Including pollution impacts into measures of income inequality,” PLOS One, 13(3):e0192461.
11 See for example Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Equity Considerations and Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups (Accessed 24 August 2020).
12 See for example Brookings Institution, Reopening America: Low-wage workers have suffered badly from COVID-19 so policy makers should focus on equity (Accessed 24 August 2020).
13 “UN experts cite ‘possible exploitation’ of workers hired to clean up toxic Japanese nuclear plant,” UN News (August 16, 2018), https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/08/1017232 (accessed July 17, 2020).
14 Yamamitsu, E. and Seig, L. (2020) “Japanese women bear brunt of recession as pandemic unravels Abe's ‘Womenomics’,” Reuters, 11 June.
15 “Japanese women took on the burden during COVID-19 school closures,” Nippon.com (July 22, 2020) https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00770/ (accessed November 6, 2020).
16 “FOCUS: Japan single mothers, female ‘non-regular’ workers hard hit by virus,” Kyodo News (July 3, 2020), (accessed November 6, 2020).
17 Fifield, A. (2017) “In Japan, single mothers struggle with poverty and a ‘culture of shame’,” The Washington Post, 28 May.
18 McKirdy, A. (2020) “Japan's homeless at risk from coronavirus pandemic,” The Japan Times, 5 April.
19 Vulnerable populations under COVID-19 was a discussion topic at the 2020 Japan-America Student Conference on August 11, 2020.
20 See Special Issue: Vulnerable Populations Under COVID-19 in Japan in The Asia-Pacific Journal.
21 Osumi, M. (2020). “Discrimination in Japan on the rise as coronavirus fears grow,” The Japan Times, 10 February.
22 Craft, L. (2020) “Japan's beleaguered nurses battling widespread abuse along with COVID-19”, CBS News: 28 April.
23 Wilson, T. and Fukunoshi, M. (2017) “Japanese school children who survived Fukushima meltdown are being subjected to ‘nuclear bullying’,” Independent, 20 March.
24 Yamaguchi, M. (2020). “In Japan, pandemic brings outbreaks of bullying, ostracism,” Associated Press, 9 May.
25 Denyer, S. and Kashiwagi, A. (2020) “In Japan, coronavirus discrimination proves almost as hard to eradicate as disease,” The Washington Post, 14 September.
26 Cheng, H.Y., Li, S-Y., Yang, C-H. (2020) “Initial rapid and proactive response to the COVID-19 outbreak – Taiwan's experience,” Journal of the Formosan Medical Association, 119: 771-773.
27 Kuhn, A. (2020) “South Korea's drive-through testing for coronavirus is fast and free”, NPR: March 13.
28 Kaneko, R. and Nakao, Y. (2020) “Experts sound alarm over Japan's coronavirus testing”, The Japan Times: 22 March.
29 Sieg, L. (2020) “‘Where's Abe?‘ critics ask, as coronavirus spreads in Japan”, Reuters: 25 February.
30 Masano, A. (2018) “Has Japan Learned the Lesson of Past Pollution Crises?” Nippon.com: 14 December.
31 Cornwall, W. (2020) “Can you put a price on COVID-19 options? Experts weigh lives versus economics,” Science: 31 March.
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