As many countries loosen coronavirus restrictions, Japan has come under global scrutiny in recent weeks due to a marked rise in COVID-related fatalities. This, Research Director Kenji Shibuya explained in a video on ABC News (Australia), is a natural outcome of the highly contagious Omicron variant spreading rapidly through nursing homes and infecting the frail elderly.

But more fundamentally, he noted, the spike reflects the fact that fatalities now include not only people whose direct cause of death is coronavirus-induced severe pneumonia—as was the case when the Delta variant was dominant—but also those with Alzheimer’s and other underlying medical conditions whose symptoms worsened due to COVID and people who happened to test positive when admitted to a hospital.

“Slow surge of covid infections fuels Japan’s deadliest outbreak yet,” ABC News (Australia)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJAm6NReAb8

Profile of Research Director Kenji Shibuya
https://www.tokyofoundation.org/experts/detail.php?id=653