This article asks whether it was merely a coincidence that infections with what the original text calls the “Wuhan virus” began increasing from Shinjuku, Tokyo, as China intensified its pressure on the Senkaku Islands, and that opposition parties including the Constitutional Democratic Party, media organizations including the Asahi Shimbun, and NHK began criticizing the government’s Go To Travel campaign.
It records the author’s questions concerning the Senkaku Islands, the pandemic, regional economic policy, and the Abe administration in July 2020.

July 23, 2020
This article was originally published on July 23, 2020.
At the time, developments around the Senkaku Islands involving Chinese vessels, rising COVID-19 case numbers, and political and media controversy surrounding the government’s Go To Travel program were unfolding simultaneously.
Rather than treating these developments only as separate events, the original text twice asks whether their timing was “merely a coincidence.”
The following translation faithfully preserves the questions and argument of the original text.
【English Translation】
July 23, 2020
At a time when China was beginning to intensify its offensive against the Senkaku Islands, was it merely a coincidence that the number of people infected with the Wuhan virus began increasing from Shinjuku in Tokyo?
At a time when China was beginning to intensify its offensive against the Senkaku Islands, was it merely a coincidence that the number of people infected with the Wuhan virus began increasing from Shinjuku in Tokyo?
Was it merely a coincidence that opposition parties such as the Constitutional Democratic Party, media organizations such as the Asahi Shimbun, and NHK began finding fault with the government’s “go to travel campaign,” which had been launched to revitalize tourist destinations and regional economies, and began moving to bring down the approval rating of the Abe administration?