http://dx.doi.org/10.17176/20200513-133638-0 https://staging.verfassungsblog.de/japans-soft-state-of-emergency-social-pressure-instead-of-legal-penalty/ Japan’s Soft State of Emergency: Social Pressure Instead of Legal Penalty Ejima, Akiko eng 2020-05-13 electronic resource text/html ddc:342 Constitutional Law Coronavirus COVID 19 Emergency Verfassungsblog Verfassungsblog--2366-7044 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 People have been perplexed by the slow and soft approach of the Japanese government in their attempt to bring COVID-19 under control. The first case of COVID-19 in Japan was confirmed on 16 January 2020. On 30 January, the Japanese government set up the COVID-19 Countermeasures Headquarters. It published emergency countermeasures against COVID-19 on 13 February and presented Basic Policies for Coronavirus Disease Control on 25 February. However, none of these measures have introduced drastic measures such as border controls and/or curfews.