JAPAN

RIKAKO TAKEI (LIKA) BURTON BANK 2005-2007 TOKYO – JULY 2020

Tokyo has had a high number of Covid-19 patients but we have not had any lockdown. The government have been telling us repeatedly to ‘stay home’ particularly over the weekends.

There has been little more than encouragement to stay indoors, I felt a proper lockdown might help ending new infections. Travel was also suspended.

I have been fortunate as I have worked from home for many years so being confined to home was no big deal. I was still able to continue working on various projects.

The biggest impact has been my work in movies has been reduced to zero. I did have an opportunity recently to get back on set but I think it is way too early in the game to decide whether they have got all the right precautions in place that will protect cast and crew. I can’t see things returning to normal until they create a suitable vaccine that guarantees protection. If you catch Covid-19 you could be in for a rough ride, especially if you are elderly, and no-one wants to end up on a respirator because the vaccine did not measure up.

It would be nice to revert to the way things were before Covid-19 as far as my own personal life is concerned, but the world has changed to the extent that maybe we are being given an opportunity to clean house, deal with matters that have been suppressed in the past (Black Lives Matter, the state of long term care homes, a rethink of how hospital rooms are designed so they accommodate one not four people) and do other things to improve the world. I see this current state of affairs continuing for another year at least. I will continue to do what I do and my social life has been curtailed but that is the small cost of staying alive.

I am quite seriously concerned at how the disruption to education is going to affect the current generations’ ability to learn what they should and be competent enough later when they start looking for work. Will they be at a big disadvantage because their education was incomplete? Is the world going to be run by a generation of poorly educated people? One can see the results of that in the U.S. Only time will tell. I have been responsible for producing “Mill Hill Times” for the past 5 ½ years and it has made me appreciate the history and architecture a lot more now than at the time. I always thought it was a magnificent looking school.

My parents, my sister and I always used to drive past Mill Hill School on the way to visit my father’s parents in Finchley and they would often say that one day I could be at that school. Through our newsletter we made contact with OMs we had not seen for decades and renewed long lost friendships.

More people started to work from home and as I never imagined the Japanese being able to do this; I was very impressed.

The biggest impact on my life due to the pandemic was having to cancel my wedding in Prague this year as we cannot fly out of Japan.

I am hoping that Japan can quickly return to normal as soon as possible so we can have the Olympics next summer. However, I’m doubtful as I don’t see a proper vaccine being available for at least another year. I feel Japan has turned less ‘worker bee’ style since the pandemic. We have managed to work effectively from home. Now I can do more working in the house and spend quality time with my family.

There are challenges, it’s sometimes difficult to communicate online, but I also think it has highlighted occasions where we can work online and spend more time as a result doing something else, something more important in our lives than work!