Hello and welcome to the history of Japan podcast episode 584, The All Seeing Eye, Part 1.

I want to start this week's episode with a little story that takes place early in the

morning of Thursday, April 7, 2022 in Shibuya in central Tokyo.

It was, from what I can find, a lovely day. Tokyo in April, probably my

favorite time to be there. The spring weather in Tokyo is really great, still rainy on occasion,

but often very nice. The seventh itself was, from what I could find, a very good day. I spent

longer than I care to admit trying to find this, but apparently sunny day,

a high of just over 17 degrees, or if you prefer your freedom units, 63 degrees.

It had been a rainy weekend, but the past few days had been lovely and warm, just the sort of

thing that makes you look forward to maybe doing some cherry blossom viewing in a few

days. If I'd been in Tokyo on Thursday, April 7th, 2022, I likely would have taken some time to,

say, go to a museum or visit Oino Park, or just stroll around and see what crazy stuff you can find,

because in a city is packed as Tokyo is, there's always something new to do.

But unfortunately, not everyone had the chance to enjoy the lovely weather, and in particular,

a response team from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Agency got a call at around 9.30 in the

morning about a disruption in Shibuya.

The staff of a vaccination clinic distributing COVID-19 vaccines for children had called the police,

saying a group of adults had entered the building to disrupt their work.

But, I mean, that has to be a false alarm, right?

The vaccine was free, at least until the last year, 2024. There's now a co-pay of 50 bucks, but in 2022 didn't exist. The government covered the whole cost. And it's for kids. Who doesn't want kids to be safe? This had to be some kind of weird misunderstanding. Maybe adults who were mad that they couldn't get priority at the clinic

to get vaccinated.

But of course, as I'm sure a few of you are already figuring out, that's not what was happening.

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