序論：アジアにおける新型コロナウイルスパンデミック

抄録

This special feature is based on the plenary session of the FY2020 Autumn Conference (November 7, 2020; Online meeting): “Infectious Diseases in Asia: Pandemics in Past and Present.” The theme for the conference was to consider how Asian countries are coping with the pandemic of COVID-19, the crisis for people around the world. What role do governments play for stopping human and economic losses caused by this pandemic? How is society responding to this new situation voluntarily or under the guidance of the government? And what type of state-social relationship is best dealing with this crisis? In this plenary session, these questions were discussed.

COVID-19 is spreading rapidly, and the situation of the world is changing day by day. We believe that this is the time when we need to take a step back from current situation and look back on history. Looking back on the past, infectious diseases have had various effects on human history. Even in modern times, pandemics have often put the world in jeopardy, killing a huge number of people. At that time, what policies did the governments use to repair the damage caused by the pandemic? It was also the theme for the conference to review past infectious diseases and the response of the state and society to them, and to consider how the development of the state and society and the sustainable cooperation beyond the state to defeat pandemic can be realized.

As this special feature is based on the plenary session of the conference, it consists of articles by three speakers of the plenary session. The paper by Kohei Wakimura discusses the port quarantine of the Red Sea route during the nineteenth century cholera pandemic. At that time, the Red Sea route was a concern as a transmission route for cholera. The paper by Wataru Iijima discusses China’s response to COVID-19 with a focus on the community. The aim of this paper is to deepen the understanding of the Chinese community, which supported the tough measures of lockdown. The paper by Shozo Sakata discusses the characteristics of Vietnam’s politics and society focusing on the information dissemination conducted by the government during COVID-19 pandemic. He argues that the challenge of infectious disease control in Vietnam since the Nguyen Dynasty has been to acquire the knowledge about epidemic diseases from abroad and to inform its people.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we hope that this special feature will serve as a catalyst for comparative research on infectious disease control between each government and society, and for the dialogue between the past and present regarding pandemics.