The Covid-19 epidemic has subsided, so should we stop offering free vaccines against the virus to all inhabitants? This is the question that the Japanese authorities are beginning to ask themselves. The tens of billions of euros that vaccination campaigns cost weigh on the Japanese budget. The government has not yet dared to take an official position on the subject, but a committee is already considering the end of free anti-Covid vaccines.
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As in France, or in most developed countries, the Japanese State very quickly decided to take responsibility for all the financing of the vaccination campaigns. People who come to have their doses inoculated pay nothing. In Japan, it is theoretically the local communities that take care of the classic campaigns, against the flu or otherwise. But the central state came to their rescue for the Covid-19 in 2021, because it was suddenly necessary to vaccinate very quickly almost the entire population and this several times. The prefectures did not have the means to follow. The problem is that the government has done its accounts and these campaigns have cost it a fortune.
Japan pays its doses quite expensive because it ordered them massively very early on, without negotiating too much and paying a kind of bonus to the medical staff who do the injections. The original idea was to motivate them to come and take part in the vaccination campaign, all over the country. In total, each injection costs the state 9,600 yen, ie 65 euros. So, with a population of 125 million, the Japanese state says it has already spent 2,340 billion yen between April 2021 and March 2022, that’s 16 billion euros. By way of comparison, France spent six billion euros last year on its vaccination campaign.
Experts believe that it may be necessary to move to a model similar to what is done for the flu. The authorities pay for the vaccination of the most fragile, in particular the over 65s. The other inhabitants, deemed to be less at risk, can be vaccinated if they wish, but they must bear part of the cost of the vaccine. Thus, the flu vaccination campaign costs less than one billion euros per year to the Japanese state. According to the ministry, we must think about a change of organization for Covid vaccines, because the country’s debt is reaching colossal levels. In France, we worry when the State is in debt up to 115% of its gross domestic product. But in Japan, this ratio is now 200%.