Tokyo Won’t Rule Out State of Emergency If Virus Spread Worsens
Tokyo to Limit Bar and Restaurant Hours as Infection Spreads
(Bloomberg) -- Tokyo will ask bars, restaurants and karaoke stores to shorten their business hours as officials race to stop a resurgent spread of the coronavirus in the Japanese capital, with Governor Yuriko Koike threatening to declare a state of emergency if the situation doesn’t improve.
Shops will be asked to shut at 10 p.m. from August 3 until the end of the month, the first such restrictions since the capital lifted all limits in June. Tokyo reported 367 cases on Thursday, one higher than the previous record.
“Right now, there is a lot of anxiety about an explosive outbreak, making the current situation extremely critical,” Koike told reporters. “A certain amount of restraint is necessary.”
Koike’s comments come as officials in Japan are planning stricter measures on businesses and group activities as Covid-19 cases spread from a concentration around the capital to other urban areas across the country. The national government is considering limiting the number of people that can dine out together or shortening business hours as part of a three-stage series of restrictions that would allow local governments to gradually introduce limits before the imposition of a state of emergency, Kyodo reported.
Tokyo conducted around 5,800 tests, the highest ever, Koike said. Thursday’s cases are broadly be in line with recent positive test rate of 6.5%, and doesn’t represent the sizable jump that some had feared. Infections have spiked in the capital on Thursdays of late, as more suspected cases are tested on Mondays with many hospitals and clinics closed during the weekend.
But after the country saw a record 1,242 cases on Wednesday, the same was feared on Thursday, with test results delayed by a four-day holiday last weekend expected to be collated. Infections reported on Thursday had passed 1,130 as of 6 p.m., public broadcaster NHK said.
Tokyo officials, speaking at a meeting monitoring the spread of the pandemic, cited the increase in infections in situations where people remove their masks, such as while having meals or drinking, or within households.
“I want people to avoid going to nighttime entertainment districts to eat and drink,” Koike said. “The infection is spreading across all age groups.”
Long Battle
Having initially controlled the pandemic after a nationwide state of emergency, the coronavirus began surging again in Japan in mid-June, as clusters of cases appeared in night clubs and among younger people. Although originally focused around the Tokyo area, infections have jumped in recent weeks in urban areas that had originally drawn praise for quickly tackling the first wave.
In Osaka, Japan’s second largest metropolitan area, officials have already called for people to refrain from drinking in groups of five or more, and the governor is considering asking businesses in a popular nighttime district to voluntarily close.
Infections have also flared in Aichi prefecture, an industrial heartland home to Toyota Motor Corp., while two cases were reported in northern Iwate prefecture Wednesday, which had drawn attention for being the only region in the country free of Covid-19. Osaka and Aichi reported 190 and 156 cases respectively on Thursday, according to local media reports. Other prefectures with cases matching or breaking records were Kanagawa, bordering Tokyo, which had 76; southern Fukuoka with 121; and Okinawa with about 50 infections, the reports said.
As new infections have increased, officials aim to target certain businesses and activities rather than calling for broad restrictions as during the state of emergency. While Hong Kong, Australia, Vietnam and other countries have imposed stricter rules as cases spike, Japan has so far taken a lighter touch -- though even if a state of emergency was enforced again, the country’s ability to enforce a lockdown is limited by civil liberties enshrined in the constitution.
Underlying that strategy is also the economic reality in a nation that is already in recession. Koike said that asking all businesses to close was not an option. Shops that cooperate with the shorter opening hours in Tokyo can apply to receive 200,000 yen ($1,900) in support money.
“If we look to the long battle ahead against the coronavirus, it’s unrealistic to ask business to completely cease operations,” she said.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.