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Young people in Tokyo to be offered points and discounts if they get vaccinated

Katie Pask Aug 15, 2021
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It pays to be vaccinated… literally!

Despite the fact that people in Japan have been able to get the coronavirus vaccine for a while now, the number of infections have still been on a definite increase. Tokyo in particular has been hit hard with corona recently, getting an average of over 4,000 new daily cases in the past week alone.

And while some people have been jumping at the bit to get their vaccine shot, not everyone is as eager. According to reports, as of the end of June, less than 9 percent of the population has received both doses of the vaccine.

So what’s a good incentive to encourage people to get vaccinated? While there have certainly been some charming campaigns in the past encouraging people to wear masks, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government have decided to go a different route in their new vaccination promotion campaign proposal.

A special app will be created for vaccinated Tokyoites to register their vaccination certificate. Those who do will be able to receive points and discounts, and while it hasn’t been revealed how many points and what kind of discounts will be given, it’s likely the points will be able to be used via cashless payments, such as PayPay.

▼ “Oh these? I just bought them with my vaccine points!”

The service will only be available to people in their 20s or 30s, as the government hopes it will encourage younger people to get vaccinated. However, despite what appears to be a win-win situation — protect yourself against corona and get paid to do so — the app has been met with a mostly frosty reception from online netizens.

“Give us actual money instead.”
“Why waste time making an app when some of us can’t even make appointments to get the vaccine in the first place? Sort that out first!”
“Whatever. We already know the app is going to be glitchy and full of bugs before we even know where we can use the points.”
“I have a feeling this app won’t work. It’ll just be another massive waste of money.”
“I guess they got a taste for COCOA (Japan’s COVID-19 contact tracing app)”

While Japanese netizens seem largely unimpressed by the Tokyo government’s proposal, we can hardly blame them — after all, over 41 million yen (US$390,000) was dropped to create COCOA, which ended up having all kinds of problems. This isn’t the first time the higher-ups come up with a pretty dubious proposal either, so it’s no wonder there’s a huge lack of trust in this newest one.

But if the prospect of points and discounts isn’t enough to encourage you to get the shot, maybe an order from Solid Snake will instead.

Source: Yahoo Japan via Otakomu
Featured image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso
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