The government is getting its response to the virus wrong by adding strings to its financial assistance for companies and people, and by not engineering a tighter lockdown, according to best-selling author and economist Yukio Noguchi.
The former finance ministry official says Japan should stop worrying about adding to its debt and spend whatever it takes to keep the crisis from spiraling out of control.
"A man shouldn’t worry about his beard, when he’s about to get his head chopped off,” Noguchi said Tuesday in an interview from his Tokyo home via video-conference.