Japan’s Much-Maligned Vaccine Campaign Quietly Gathers Speed (1)

After some false starts, Japan’s much-delayed vaccine rollout is quietly picking up steam.

The seven-day average of doses has quadrupled in just two weeks, with about a quarter of the nearly 14 million shots given coming in the past week alone. A flurry of initiatives are being implemented or floated to further ramp up the drive -- among them an expansion of those qualified to administer the shots as well as mass vaccination at workplaces and in “nighttime entertainment” districts.

A man gets up after receiving a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at Noevir Stadium Kobe on June 1.

Photographer: Buddhika Weerasinghe/Bloomberg

Japan has faced criticism for the pace of its inoculation drive, which on paper began in February but struggled ...