Hilton is a scholar of Japan’s culture having frequently visited and read a lot about Japan. He lives in Pacific Beach. As Tokyo hosts the Summer Olympics, Americans will be interested to know reasons why the United States has about 15 times more COVID-19 cases and deaths, per capita, than Japan. Frequently traveling to Japan over three decades to visit my wife’s family fortified my interest to discover how the world’s third-largest economy had only voluntary business closures with no mandatory stay-at-home orders. Only specific businesses in certain locations have early closing requirements; most state of emergency orders are voluntary.