Sankei Shimbun’s Italy correspondent Tetsuo Sakamoto questions why the Japanese government has not demanded compensation or a full investigation into China’s responsibility for the novel coronavirus outbreak. Japan should now call at the United Nations for the establishment of a body to investigate the cause and discuss liability for damages.

May 13, 2020
Strangely, no voice can be heard from the Japanese government demanding compensation from China for such conduct.
Now is precisely the time for our country to call, at the United Nations, for the establishment of a body to discuss the investigation of the cause and the manner in which liability for compensation should be assumed.
The following is from an article by Tetsuo Sakamoto, the Italy correspondent, published in today’s Sankei Shimbun under the title “China’s Responsibility.”
While the development of vaccines for the novel coronavirus, which is spreading throughout the world, is proceeding at a rapid pace, there is still no prospect of when it will be brought under control.
I shudder to imagine that, if things continue as they are, it may become like the plague, the Black Death, which struck Europe in the 14th century, drove one-third of the population to death, and took decades to subside.
The number of deaths in the United States has exceeded the number of U.S. military deaths in the Vietnam War.
According to reports, the number of deaths in Lombardy, the northern Italian region whose capital is Milan, has exceeded 10,000, about five times the number of civilian victims in Milan during the final five years of the Second World War.
The damage suffered by the economy, commerce, and industry is also severe.
There is no doubt that, when the damage suffered by countries around the world is added together, it will become an astronomical figure.
The Chinese government also effectively admitted at first that the source of the novel coronavirus was around Wuhan in Hubei Province, China, though there is also a theory that it came from the Wuhan virus research institute. However, once the turmoil in its own country settled down, China suddenly began claiming, as if the source were in another country.
It is donating masks in order to make others feel indebted, and has newly established administrative districts in the South China Sea in an attempt to have the “existence of sovereignty” accepted as an accomplished fact.
Strangely, no voice can be heard from the Japanese government demanding compensation from China for such conduct.
Now is precisely the time for our country to call, at the United Nations, for the establishment of a body to discuss the investigation of the cause and the manner in which liability for compensation should be assumed.