I tend to agree that the government is pretty authoritarian, and the general populace is pretty content to follow what they decide is the correct course of action. The double edged sword here is that the government has no recognized legal power to limit individual rights. They can set penalties to businesses, but the businesses are free to make their choice. Meaning businesses can and will wring you harder than the government might have. All "mandates" in Japan have been requests, anyways.
You may have seen in the news that the government told Japanese airlines to limit, and then stop, bookings from overseas, including to Japanese citizens trying to return for New Year's holiday. The airlines turned around and told them to get fucked.
This also means companies and restaurants get to set their own terms for safety precautions. When I booked for Christmas, most said you only had to have vaccine information for parties of 10 or more people. And when the government limited the sale of alcohol, the bars realized they easily covered the fines by just operating normally (because chains tended to follow the rules more strictly, so bars were the only place to get alcohol).
So I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic. A lot of people seem to think things might go downhill after New Year's though. I'm hoping the "poor" effectiveness of Novavax against the Decepticons omicron won't be held against it here, since the 60% quoted earlier is probably miles above the Pfizer/Moderna boosters anyways.