• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News

Tokyo’s voluntary standstill may have stopped COVID-19 in its tracks

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
November 5, 2020
in Science News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
ADVERTISEMENT
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

IMAGE

Credit: Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo

Tokyo – Why did Japan largely contain COVID-19 despite famously jam-packed Tokyo and despite the country’s proximity to China? With no penalties and only requests for cooperation, Japan’s state of emergency somehow averted the large-scale outbreaks seen elsewhere. At least one viable answer has now emerged.

A new comparative analysis of people’s mobility during the virus’ first wave illustrates how drastically the Tokyo masses slowed. That slowdown may have throttled the spread of infections.

In a study from The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science, researchers examined location data from more than 200,000 mobile phone users. Using these data, the researchers calculated the human movement in Tokyo before and during the state of emergency. The striking findings were published in Scientific Reports.

“Using anonymized data that represented about 2% of the population, we could compute human movement and contact rates at a 100-meter grid-cell scale,” study first author Takahiro Yabe says. “We found that 1 week into the state of emergency, human mobility reduced by 50%, which led to a 70% drop in social contacts.”

Less contact implies less disease spread.

Japan declared its state of emergency on April 7, followed by a gradual series of requests to close businesses and work from home, along with aggressive travel entry restrictions. However, under Japanese law, a mandatory lockdown could not be implemented or enforced.

The data spanned from January to April. A look at the major hub train stations around central Tokyo, including Shinjuku Station, the world’s busiest, finds April 14 in Tokyo had 76%-87% fewer visits compared with pre-crisis January.

The researchers also analyzed how much and how far people in greater Tokyo traveled, with both showing around a 50% reduction. In other words, people moved less and stayed nearer to home. Social contact could also be computed based on people’s spatial proximity. That, too, was substantially reduced, nearly to the 80% reduction level the government had targeted. The decline trends generally corresponded with governmental requests for people to do remote work, for school closures, and the actual state of emergency.

Going a step further, the study paired socioeconomic data with the mobility results. This showed those with higher income were more capable of reducing social contact and, consequently, lower the chance of COVID-19 transmission. Finally, the study put the mobility data against the estimated effective reproduction number, a key statistic estimating how many cases one infection can cause. This validated how the reduced contact also was likely to reduce infections.

“With a noncompulsory and nonpharmaceutical intervention, Tokyo had to rely on citizens’ cooperation. Our study shows they cooperated by limiting their movement and contact, subsequently limiting infections,” study co-author Yoshihide Sekimoto explains. “These findings offer insights that policymakers can apply when estimating necessary movement restrictions.”

Amid the complex human and environmental dynamics behind fighting the spread of COVID-19, there is now stronger evidence that staying home and maintaining distance really work.

###

The article, “Non?compulsory measures sufficiently reduced human mobility in Tokyo during the COVID?19 epidemic,” was published in Scientific Reports at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75033-5

Media Contact
Yoshihide Sekimoto
sekimoto@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Original Source

https://www.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/news/3393/

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75033-5

Tags: Algorithms/ModelsEpidemiologyImmigrants & MigrationInfectious/Emerging DiseasesInformation Management/Tracking SystemsPublic HealthScience/Health/LawSocial/Behavioral ScienceTelecommunicationsTransportation/Travel
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Additive Manufacturing of Monolithic Gyroidal Solid Oxide Cells

July 20, 2025

Machine Learning Uncovers Sorghum’s Complex Mold Resistance

July 20, 2025

Pathology Multiplexing Revolutionizes Disease Mapping

July 20, 2025

Single-Cell Atlas Links Chemokines to Type 2 Diabetes

July 20, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Blind to the Burn

    Overlooked Dangers: Debunking Common Myths About Skin Cancer Risk in the U.S.

    58 shares
    Share 23 Tweet 15
  • New Organic Photoredox Catalysis System Boosts Efficiency, Drawing Inspiration from Photosynthesis

    54 shares
    Share 22 Tweet 14
  • IIT Researchers Unveil Flying Humanoid Robot: A Breakthrough in Robotics

    53 shares
    Share 21 Tweet 13
  • AI Achieves Breakthrough in Drug Discovery by Tackling the True Complexity of Aging

    70 shares
    Share 28 Tweet 18

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Additive Manufacturing of Monolithic Gyroidal Solid Oxide Cells

Machine Learning Uncovers Sorghum’s Complex Mold Resistance

Pathology Multiplexing Revolutionizes Disease Mapping

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.