******** The full report published April 5, 2021.
For more information, please refer to the PDF.

■Overview:

Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) will take advantage of its position as a neutral and independent global think tank to convene the COVID-19 Policy Agenda Series, a series of global expert meetings for discussing future COVID-19 measures with experts from abroad.

These meetings will provide opportunities for those experts to freely exchange opinions from positions of equality on best methods to promote immunization among the public, how to communicate to the public, the current status of surveillance and testing systems, efforts to improve policies, and the ideal structure of international quarantine and inspection systems. This knowledge will be required to hold the 2021 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games and other international events, to enable the Government to effectively communicate risk to the public, and to improve epidemiological database systems. In the future, we will make efforts to connect with experts around the world online to create more opportunities for international opinion exchanges. 

At the first expert meeting, we deepened the discussion on advances that must be made to reach a national consensus on hosting large-scale international events, establishing systems for international collaboration, and policy developments needed to safely resume large-scale international events with the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in mind.

■Five recommendations synthesized from an international discussion involving industry, the Government, academia, and civil society (Summary):

Recommendation 1. To resume large-scale events, public understanding of all aspects of COVID-19 control should be promoted.
Recommendation 2. Quarantining at international points of entry and thorough observance of basic infectious disease control measures should continue. negative test results at time of departure or entry are not decisive infectious disease control measures.
Recommendation 3. A data-based infection management system that utilizes epidemiological databases and modeling should be built.
Recommendation 4. Testing systems should be diversified and expanded according to scientific knowledge.
Recommendation 5. The Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games should be held in a manner that demonstrates the new normal to the world.
(For more information, please refer to the PDF)

■Speakers (Title Omitted):

Hanako Jimi (Member, House of Councilors; Chief of Secretariat, Anti-COVID-19 Measures for Inbound Tourists at Head Office, the Novel Coronavirus Response Headquarters of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan))
Cheong Wei Yang (Deputy Secretary (Special Projects), Ministry of Health, Singapore)
Alex Richard Cook (Associate Professor, at National University of Singapore, Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health)
Satoshi Kamayachi (Executive Director, Japan Medical Association)
Nobuhiko Okabe (Director General, Kawasaki City Institute for Public Health)
Naomi Sakurai (Cancer survivor; President, Cancer Solutions Co., Ltd)
Katsunori Yanagihara (Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine, School of Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nagasaki University; Examination and Diagnosis Team, Tokyo Center for Infectious Disease Control and Prevention (iCDC) Expert Board)
Hidemasa Nakamura (GDO<Games Delivery Officer> / Executive Director of Sports, The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games)
Kazuhiro Tateda (Professor, Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Toho University; President, The Japanese Society for Clinical Microbiology)
Keizo Takemi (Member, House of Councilors; Chairperson, Infectious Disease Measures Governance Subcommittee, the Novel Coronavirus Response Headquarters of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan)
Kiyoshi Kurokawa (Chairman, HGPI)
Ryoji Noritake (CEO, Board Member, HGPI)