As Japan has passed a thousand cases of the coronavirus, including those from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, and the government has taken drastic action by calling for all schools to shut, some have asked whether the country has the proper scientific infrastructure to respond to a viral outbreak.
In particular, critics have suggested that Japan needs the equivalent of the U.S.'s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, a national agency which can provide expert advice in times of crisis for the government to act on. At the moment, these critics fear that politics takes precedence in decision-making.
