Japan to impose new state of emergency as Covid-19 cases rise

Japan is preparing for a short spell of Covid-19 restrictions in its biggest cities over a week-long holiday that begins this weekend in an effort to halt a rapid rise in cases.

A state of emergency will be declared in Tokyo, Osaka, Hyogo and Kyoto prefectures between April 25 and May 11. This period includes Golden Week, one of Japan’s biggest public holidays when many people travel, which falls on the first week of May.

Unlike a previous state of emergency in January and February, the government is expected to request the complete closure of venues serving alcohol and large shops, excluding supermarkets. The public will be asked to work from home where possible but schools will stay open.

The closures reflect concern about the spread of Covid-19 variants that have caused a jump in cases in the nation’s second city of Osaka, with Tokyo not far behind. Japan reported 5,280 cases on Thursday, the highest level of new infections since January.

As well as the risk from faster-spreading variants, the latest measures reflect the need to control the virus if Japan is to stage the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The games are due to start in just 91 days.

“Taking advantage of the long holidays, we really want people to stay home like they did last spring, so we can control the spread of cases,” said Yasutoshi Nishimura, the economy minister who is in charge of Japan’s Covid-19 response.

Nishimura said more than 80 per cent of Covid-19 cases in Osaka were due to variants. “We’re worried about the potential for rapid spread. If we’re to avoid stronger measures than we’ve used until now, we have to get these highly infectious variants under control,” he said.

A constitutional right to free movement means Japan has never imposed a lockdown but has asked the public to stay at home voluntarily instead. Tokyo has now passed a law allowing it to penalise restaurants that do not close when requested.

Medical officials hope that a short period of severe restrictions, such as those used when the virus emerged last year, will be enough to bring cases down before the summer.

But Tokyo only lifted a previous state of emergency a month ago, raising questions about how willing the public would be to respect a new round of restrictions and whether they would cancel holiday plans.

The need for a new state of emergency reflects Japan’s slow progress on vaccinations. The country has given at least one vaccine dose to just 1.7m people, almost all of them medical personnel.

“So far we’ve poured our efforts into securing the supply of vaccines, but to increase the pace of inoculations, we need local governments to do everything they can,” said Taro Kono, the minister in charge of Japan’s vaccination programme.