Japan is known around the world for its efficiency and organization, a place where the trains, famously, are always running on time.
But in its rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, the country has lagged well behind its peers.
With the 2021 Tokyo Olympics now just 48 days away, Japan still ranks last in vaccination rate among the 38 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to online research site Our World in Data. Roughly 8.7% of its 126 million residents had received at least one shot as of Thursday. Only 3% of the Japanese public – mostly health-care workers and the elderly – is fully vaccinated.