Book Review:"COVID-19 on the Front Lines: Testimonies of Local Government Employees, 2020–2023"
- かゆかわクリニック院長 粥川裕平
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
Monthly Hodanren
No. 1419, April 2024
Edited by the Japan Federation of Local Government Workers' Unions
Supervised by Kenichi Kuroda
Published by Otsuki ShotenA5 size, 280 pages
First edition: August 20, 2023Price: ¥1,500 (plus tax)
Testimonies from the Front Lines of Protecting People's Lives and Livelihoods
Valuable Insights for Restoring the Public Good
The COVID-19 pandemic, which infected nearly 700 million people and claimed almost seven million lives among the world's population of more than eight billion, has still not completely come to an end.
Moreover, the long-term effects of mRNA vaccines remain to be fully understood.
Japan proclaims pacifism under Article 9 of its Constitution while maintaining one of the world's strongest military forces. At the same time, however, successive governments have consolidated and downsized the nation's medical and public health systems, reducing personnel responsible for protecting citizens' lives—a striking contradiction.
Healthcare, public health, and welfare workers confronted the pandemic while living with the constant fear of becoming infected themselves. As public health centers and community health centers—the front line in safeguarding people's lives and livelihoods—were progressively downsized and reorganized through national policies, virtually every department of local government found itself engaged in the fight against COVID-19.
Although this book does not include firsthand accounts from intensive care units treating the most critically ill patients requiring ECMO, it brings together the testimonies of 41 local government employees from Hokkaido to Kyushu. Their experiences span public health centers, emergency services, hospitals, welfare facilities, after-school childcare programs, daycare centers, sanitation services, municipal administrative offices, and many other fields.
The book begins with a table of contents, a prologue, and a foreword. Part I, "Testimonies of Local Government Workers," presents firsthand accounts from professionals working in public health, healthcare, firefighting, childcare, after-school programs, nursing care, welfare services, municipal administration, and non-regular employment. Part II follows with two analytical sections: "Jichiroren's Efforts to Protect the Lives of Residents and Public Employees" and "The Roles and Challenges of Local Governments Revealed by the COVID-19 Pandemic." These chapters are written by members of Jichiroren's executive committee and academic researchers, and the volume concludes with an epilogue.
The essence of the book is well captured by its supervising editor, Kenichi Kuroda, who writes that it is "filled with valuable insights into how we can restore the public sphere after its erosion under neoliberalism."
Meanwhile, as non-regular employment has expanded throughout Japan's private sector, a similar trend has emerged in public service through the widespread use of fixed-term employees known as Fiscal Year Appointed Employees (Kaikei Nendo Nin'yō Shokuin).
Public servants are, by definition, civil servants—literally servants of the public—and therefore bear a special obligation to serve society during times of disaster and national emergency. The book raises concerns about Article 33 of Japan's Labor Standards Act, but the real challenge lies in balancing the extraordinary responsibilities placed upon public employees during emergencies with the protection of their own health and well-being.
While scholarly analyses often provide valuable broad perspectives, they frequently lack the immediacy of lived experience. It is those working on the front lines who are best positioned to identify the shortcomings, contradictions, and practical challenges of pandemic preparedness and infectious disease control.
Above all, this volume convincingly demonstrates the important role played by Jichiroren as a labor union committed to defending both public services and the people who provide them.
