[craftinator]

There are a number of thoughts I have, but I'm puzzled as well. My first explanation is that the Japanese are simply more hyegeinic than most other countries I've been to. Fastidious is the word that comes to mind. They wash hands often, wear clean clothes, wear masks or stay home when sick, don't shake hands or touch often.

Second explanation that comes to mind is that they tend to be just healthier than other countries. They have low obesity, exercise correctly and routinely, walk and ride bikes to get where they go, and do all of this even when elderly. The counterpoint to this is that they have a really high smoking population.

Source: I lived there for two years.

[taeric]

The first one could explain why it isn't spreading there. Without testing, hard to know if that is accurate. Reports from other threads supports that it is there, but not severe cases. (Sadly, anecdotes...)

Second is also tougher to square. The risk pool is supposedly older people, per reports from Italy. But, that doesn't seem to square with age profiles of Japanese. So??

[brigandish]

One difference could be that old people in Japan are all too often living a solitary existence or not in frequent touch with their family. My wife brought this up last night as I was discussing this thread with her and out of everything I've seen, read, and considered, this seems to be the one thing that could stop it - they were already socially distancing the most vulnerable group.

Still, there's a long way to go for this thing.