Maybe folk who just consume mainstream media news without any cynicism filter. Sadly a ton of people do that.

Yesterday this headline; US Officials Knew of Wuhan Health Crisis in November was on the front page.

While the comments confirm that lack of cynicism filter or "not reading the article written by serial clickbait headline abuser media outlet" they do offer some insight why it is a legit surprise to people outside Japan. I don't think the world really pays much attention to Japan. I'm out here, my Dad is from here, yet my of family and friends in the states don't know about any of this. Cruise ship is all they know.

When I read the comments there two things stood in stark contrast to this sub. First, the discussion of the virus is almost that of "whew that was close". Second, despite there being thousands of comments and threads about all of the countries in the region and said countries status, Japan is not brought up.

This is just a hypothesis... journalists have been reporting non stop about the home front. Someone wanted to write on something different.

This hypothetical journalist was just like

"OK I know I have to write on the virus but from another angle.

Wait didn't a country have to postpone one of those 2-4 year world sporting events; World Cup? World Basketball Championships?

No....ah, it was the Rugy World Cup. Hosted by, kind of an odd team name... Big Blossoms? No wait, Brave Blossoms! That's it Japan's Brave Blossoms, they were going to host the 2020 Summer Olympics but they got postponed. I wonder how they're doing with Coronavirus... "