I have a meeting scheduled for next week.

Maezawa from Shacho-shitsu here. When the first state of emergency was declared, the number of arrangements dropped dramatically, and our sales plummeted. The company went through a very difficult time. Since then, though, the number of arrangements hasn’t really decreased. It may be down slightly, but my impression is that sales have simply returned to about the usual level, rather than reaching the higher figures we otherwise would have expected. I’m not entirely sure, but it feels like there’s been very little impact overall. So no matter how many more states of emergency are declared, I don’t think many people will be willing to stop going on dates anymore. In the first place, the declarations seem to target restaurants while treating everything else as irrelevant, which makes you wonder what exactly is “emergency” about them. Unless they stop trains and buses and force schools and companies to close, it doesn’t really seem meaningful. Then again, perhaps what matters is simply being able to say that a state of emergency has been declared, which may be why things have taken their current form.

I’m in Seattle. I’m not a politician, so I’ll just follow whatever the authorities say. I don’t really care. I don’t expect anything from politics. I’ll keep eating at open restaurants and indoors, and continue as usual. Until the vaccines become widely available in the fall, maybe we should just stop worrying about it. Containing it is impossible anyway.