2021.04.27
News

Seventeenth Urgent Message from Our President: Third State of Emergency Declared—Society Is Facing a Crisis and Needs Your Help

As part of the effort to stop the spread of COVID-19, a state of emergency has been declared for the third time in Hyogo, along with Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo. The state of emergency applies to all areas of Hyogo Prefecture between April 25 and May 11. During this period, restaurants, bars, and many other large-scale commercial, cultural, sports, and leisure facilities throughout Hyogo have been forced into temporary closure, which will surely result in massive damage not only to their operators, but also to the many associated businesses. The damage to the tourism sector—including transport, accommodation, and travel businesses—will be immeasurable.

Consumer activity is one of the main driving forces behind socioeconomic activity and, needless to say, even temporary stagnation has a severe impact on the national economy as a whole. The longer the suspension of consumer activity lasts, and the more it is repeated, the more we require large-scale financial injections to provide aid, either directly to business owners or indirectly through projects designed to build and maintain the business environment. At a time when the outlook is already worrying for Japan’s massive budget deficit, we cannot eliminate the possibility that further financial strain may propel the nation into economic crisis. Thus, our actions now may come back to haunt future generations who would have to repay the debt.

At the same time, it is up to you, the younger generation, to ensure society avoids such a crisis. The past year or so has taught us that the virus does not spread when people maintain due consideration for COVID safety in their activities and interactions; rather it happens in places where people let their guard down, such as at home, and through group interactions where people do not wear face masks, such as close-quarters conversation, eating and drinking, and activities like karaoke.

Recently, most cases involve new, highly infectious mutant strains of the coronavirus, and the number of younger people infected is rising. Yet even as concerns rise about an increase in severe cases among that demographic and their role as spreaders, we are still noticing dreadful behavior by some people.

Just one person’s reckless behavior can cause disaster for many. I urge you to watch and learn from the Japanese video message by our vice-president and director of Institute for Student Affairs, Prof. Reiko Sakashita. As well as calling for your understanding regarding our painful decision to revert from in-person classes to online classes and to suspend all extracurricular activities, Prof. Sakashita lays out the rules that we must all follow in this situation. Now, stopping the spread of COVID-19 must be foremost in our minds, and each and every one of us is required to behave appropriately.

Even the darkest night eventually leads to dawn. For now, entry to campuses will be restricted and more of your classes will be conducted online, but we hope to achieve a full resumption of in-person classes and extracurricular activities as soon as possible. I hope fervently that all of you will take pride in being University of Hyogo students, and that you will act in a sensible, restrained manner in keeping with your responsibility to society so as to help society overcome this crisis.

Isao OHTA
President
University of Hyogo