Tokyo’s Crowds Stay Home After Governor Calls for Soft Shutdown

(Bloomberg) -- Tokyo turned quiet over the past weekend after the city’s governor urged residents to stay at home to prevent a rapid spread of the coronavirus, suggesting that the country will stick to its wait-and-see approach to declaring an emergency.

Governor Yuriko Koike’s plea last week may have helped shift attitudes in Japan, where relatively few people have altered their lifestyles in the face of an infection that has killed 34,000 worldwide. With Covid-19 yet to run rampant in the country, crowds had continued to throng the capital before the announcement.

A poll published by the Nikkei newspaper Monday showed 83% of respondents said they were avoiding going out, compared with 43% a month ago. Adding to the sense of worry was the death announced on Monday of nationally known comedian, Ken Shimura, 70, who tested positive for the virus last week. His show “Fun with Kato-chan and Ken-chan” helped give rise to “America’s Funniest Home Videos (AFV).”

Tokyo has seen a three-fold jump in cases last week, raising alarm that it could be the next global city hit with an explosive surge in infections. Koike’s call came as Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin ordered restaurants, bars, parks and most stores in Europe’s largest capital city to close temporarily from the weekend as confirmed infections in Russia have shot up and New York has emerged as an epicenter for the deadly virus.

Governments across Asia are reinforcing their defenses as the virus’s global spread fuels a second wave of cases. Hong Kong and Singapore have both issued similar calls for people to stay inside and avoid gatherings in lieu of more complete lockdowns.

The situation in Japan has placed it on the brink of an emergency declaration, top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters Monday adding Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government is carefully considering a declaration that would enable local officials to take measures such as ordering the cancellation of events, restricting use of facilities such as schools and movie theaters and appropriating land or buildings for temporary medical facilities.

The shift came as Tokyo announced 68 confirmed infections Sunday, bringing the total in the capital to 430, compared with 138 a week earlier. Relatively speaking, Japan has been unscathed, with only around 1,800 confirmed cases in a country of more than 120 million.

Shibuya’s famous scramble crossing saw a steady stream of pedestrians and road traffic, as monitored through a live webcam, though far less than would be usual for a spring weekend. Some businesses closed temporarily, and a late-season snowfall on Sunday may also have helped keep Tokyo residents indoors.

While Koike last week threatened a lockdown similar to ones in several European cities, she doesn’t have the legal power to enforce such a move. Even if the prime minister were to declare an emergency, regional governors can only request that people avoid unnecessary outings.

Abe said on Saturday he was not thinking of an emergency declaration for the moment, while warning that an explosive increase in cases could come at any time. Stores remain open in Japan, and people are still showing up in offices, although in much thinner numbers.

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