Pandemic Response Report Card: Japan
It has been …
… since Former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said "Developing medicines and vaccines, ensuring equitable access and providing assistance to vulnerable developing countries are the priority."
Fund the Global Response
We need at least US $52 billion to fund the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022. Grant financing by donor countries accounts for at least US $27.7 billion, or 53%, of this. Governments must act fast to fill this funding gap. To date, US $2.3 billion has been committed by members of the G20.
Dismantle Barriers to Vaccine Supply
Only a handful of countries have the capacity to manufacture vaccines. We need urgent action to share mRNA technology and intellectual property rights, and to adapt existing facilities and acquire the materials needed to scale up vaccine production globally.
Share SDRs for Economic Recovery
The pandemic’s aftershocks continue to devastate the economies of many countries. High-income countries must support more vulnerable nations with all tools available, including Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), an international reserve asset that can help support countries in emergencies. Rechannelling an initial $100 billion of SDRs in 2021 to low income and vulnerable middle income countries is a smart investment in a fairer, greener, and better recovery for everyone. To date, $60 billion has been committed from all advanced economies.
Ambitious Replenishment of the World Bank's IDA20
Deliver doses
Low and lower-middle income countries still need nearly 1.9 billion doses to fully vaccinate 70% of the population by mid-2022. To help close the gap, members of the G20 have promised to share over 2.7 billion doses by mid-2022. To date, 1.31 billion have been delivered. Note: in response to calls from Africa CDC to pause vaccine donations until the second half of 2022, scoring for the delivery of doses was last updated on 17 February 2022 to reflect how well donors delivered on commitments when there were significant constraints on the supply of COVID-19 vaccines. Deliveries and updates to published dose delivery will continue to be monitored.
Japan has not published a dose delivery plan.
What’s next?
Japan has committed to share a total of 60 million doses, though no timeline has been provided. To date, Japan has delivered 38.5 million doses. And Japan has committed only half of the $2.4 billion it was asked to pledge to the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A).To tackle the pandemic’s global economic impact, Japan’s stated approach is financial assistance to vulnerable countries and support for longer term initiatives; but this does not seem to have materialised in substantial additional funding so far. While many other G7 countries have pledged significant new support to the global economic response, Japan has only committed 10% of its Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) allocation. And Japan’s foreign aid increased only marginally in 2020, by just 0.01% of GNI.
Japan hosted the pledging conference for the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) at the end of 2021. African leaders have called for an ambitious $100 billion replenishment — global leaders fell short of this goal, reaching US$93 billion. Japan also must recycle at least 20% of its SDR allocation.