This chapter provides a political analysis of the COVID-19 crisis management in Japan completed by a socio-spatial analysis during the first three waves of the epidemic. Introducing the infectious diseases legal framework to pinpoint the key notion of "responsibility" allows us to understand coordination among political, scientific, and economic actors, and citizens, at national and local levels, allowing the implementation of various measures applied to each new wave. We then highlight tensions, power relations, and conflicts of interest, before concluding on Japanese relationship between freedom and security raised by the COVID-19 global pandemic.