Here’s the quote:
“Kentaro Iwata, a professor of infectious diseases at Kobe University, calls it an example of what is known here as ‘yattafuri,’ showing you are doing something without actually doing anything: a superficial approach that values procedure over outcomes.” The underlined text is my emphasis.
I can think of two such everyday events in our lives today. There is a reason that the screening of passengers at airports has been called “Homeland Security Theater.” Or yattafuri by another name. Then there is the temperature screenings that have happened during the coronavirus pandemic as you enter different facilities. COVID-19 theater or yattafuri? I’ve asked people if they have ever turned anyone away due to a temperature check and no one has said yes — yet.
As for screening people at airports, how about the old lady in a wheelchair who is clearly elderly and infirm. Do you make her get up out of the wheel chair to get screened? I’m willing to accept that risk. Or the old man who can’t understand the instructions, who has an artificial knee or hip that keeps getting passed back through for additional screening. I’ve seen both of the above. Yattafuri for sure.