Health ministry bureaucrat Moriyo Kimura made headlines in late May just after the H1N1 flu outbreak sparked a massive mask-buying spree across the nation. Appearing before a Diet committee as an expert witness, the 44-year-old quarantine officer sharply criticized her own ministry — and especially its head, then-Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe — for their handling of the outbreak.
Back then, some 200 doctors were mobilized at Narita Airport to interrogate anyone with a high temperature arriving there. The declared purpose was to keep the virus "offshore."
"Those quarantine officers at Narita Airport running around with their protective masks and gowns on were used for a 'performance' act (by Masuzoe) to win sympathy from the public," Kimura said, visibly outraged.