Because many people ask how are things in Japan regarding the epidemic, I'm copying here almost verbatim the mail I sent to my brother today, answering the same question:
The situation is much milder than it is in Europe. Although because of its relationship with China, Japan was at first number three in terms of the virus' spread (plus it had the problem with the cruise ship) it very soon fell to the tenth. This happened because people wear masks anyway (especially during this season because of allergies) and because schools were going to close anyway because it's the end of the academic year (in Japan the school year starts on April 1st and ends in the beginning of March).
What is more important though, is that people here obey the rules a lot so when the government said "Do this and that" they immediately did and the progress was restrained. We still have about 50-60 new cases every day (the official count as reported every day from NHK, the public broadcast system is here) but in a population of 127 million this spread isn't so big and although Japan has a huge aging population problem, the total number of cases without the cruise ship are below 800 and the deaths are only 22.
Besides schools, public gyms (hence I can't go to practice anymore!), libraries museums and other spaces where people gather in large numbers, cafe, restaurants, shops, banks and public services are working normally and also people are using public transportation, mostly because they don't have a choice: especially in Tokyo many people don't have cars and even those who do, don't use them to go to work, to shop or to dine out.
Therefore, I wouldn't say that our life has changed a lot. Of course the story is first in the news every day (the title is the virus' name in Japanese: 新型コロナウイルス) but because coverage is very sober, there's no panic and we live 95% the way we lived before.
PS
The picture is from a drugstore -the sign says "We're out of masks and hand sanitizer and we don't know when we'll have again."
(For a bigger version of this picture both in color and black and white, check my "Japan Arekore" set on Flickr).
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