1/ NEW: Since the onset of the pandemic, nearly a hundred medical facilities in Japan have reported COVID-19 outbreaks. Seibu Hospital in Yokohama suffered one of the worst, with 80 people testing positive for the virus, including 43 staff members.
"Women are viewed as working to supplement the income of male bread-winners, so even if they lose their jobs, men are viewed as their safety net," said Mieko Takenobu, professor emeritus at Wako University in Tokyo. "Reality is different."
The number of “non-regular” workers (eg part-time, contract, temporary) posted its biggest drop on record in April, declining by 970,000 to 2.02 million.
Women accounted for 710,000 of the decline.
Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has long made creating jobs for women central to his economic policy, but now women are suffering a bigger share of the pain as the country heads for its worst economic slump since WWII
1/ NEW: I spent several days inside St. Marianna University Hospital's coronavirus ward, following a group of doctors and nurses in "Team C", tasked with caring for critically ill COVID-19 patients. Here's my story