Japan’s vaccine effort hits logistical roadblock ahead of Summer Olympics

Several of Japan’s biggest municipalities, including parts of Tokyo and Osaka, have stopped taking new reservations for COVID-19 vaccinations in the latest hiccup for the country’s effort to vaccinate its people, with the Tokyo Olympics just two weeks away.

The bottlenecks in distribution are sowing confusion among vaccine seekers, complicating a vaccination campaign that has sped up rapidly in recent weeks after criticism over a slow start. They’ve prompted Japan’s vaccine czar to ask some municipalities to curtail their pace to keep up with supply.

Unlike many places around the world, Japan has an abundant supply of vaccines nationwide — as of the end of June, the country had received 100 million doses of the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE vaccine, of which 44 million had been administered.

Rather, the issue appears to be a misallocation of shots, with too many doses going to places where demand is low, while others run out. Vaccine minister Taro Kono said Friday some locations have been going “extremely fast” and should “optimize” their speed.

In total Japan has given 54.9 million doses, enough to cover about 22% of the population, according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker.

Japan’s inoculation rollout is in the spotlight as infections rise again, particularly in Tokyo, prompting the return of a state of emergency in the capital that will cover the entirety of the Olympics.

The worsening picture has driven organizers to ban spectators from Olympic events held in Greater Tokyo, reversing an earlier decision to allow some fans in.

Nerima, the second most populous of central Tokyo’s borough-like wards, is getting less than half the number of doses it requested for the period from July 5 to August 1, according to a spokesman.

The ward has had to suspend new reservations at the vaccination centers it runs, as well as instruct private clinics to keep new appointments to a minimum as supply wanes.