Notes

Extension to emergency needed:
Suga

Tokyo area con trols may last two more weeks

The Japan Times ・ 4 Mar 2021 ・ 1 ・ RYUSEI TAKAHASHI STAFF WRITER

Prime Min is ter Yoshi hide Suga said Wed nes day that Ja pan’s sec ond state of emer gency should be ex tended
by around two weeks for the greater Tokyo metropoli tan area, the last re gion still un der the
or der, which was set to ex pire Sun day.
The gov er nors of Tokyo, Kana gawa, Chiba and Saitama pre fec tures had been dis cussing the sub mis sion
of a joint re quest to the cen tral gov ern ment Wed nes day evening to voice their con cerns that new
cases are not de clin ing fast enough to safely lift the state of emer gency Sun day, de spite a steady de cline
since Ja pan’s third and largest wave peaked in early Jan uary.
“I be lieve a two-week ex ten sion is nec es sary to pro tect the lives and liveli hoods of the peo ple,” Suga
told re porters Wed nes day evening, adding that he would make a de ci sion af ter con sult ing with virus
ex perts and the four gov er nors.
As was the case be fore the coun try’s first state of emer gency was ended in May last year, there is a
ma jor con cern that lift ing the or der abruptly or pre ma turely will ex pose the na tion to the risk of a re bound
in new cases.
On the other hand, an ex tended state of emer gency would worsen the fi nan cial im pact shoul dered by
lo cal busi nesses, es pe cially the restau rants that have been asked to close by 8 p.m. in parts of the
coun try since the dec la ra tion was made in early Jan uary.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said dur ing a meet ing at the metropoli tan gov ern ment’s of fices on Tues day
that the pace of de cline in new cases has ta pered, but per haps by not enough to fully re open the city.
Koike said in Fe bru ary that the rolling weekly av er age of new cases needs to dip be low 70% of the
pre vi ous week’s fig ure for the or der to be safely lifted.
“That num ber is closer to 80% or 90%,” Koike said Tues day. “There may not be enough time” for the
virus to sub side enough be fore the state of emer gency is due to be lifted Sun day, she said.
On Wed nes day, the cap i tal re ported 316 new cases of COVID-19. On Mon day, the city logged 121 new
cases, the low est daily count since early Novem ber, whereas Chiba Pre fec ture re ported 127 new cases
that day, a rare in stance in which the cap i tal’s fig ure was sur passed by a neigh bor ing pre fec ture.
“We need to pre pare for the state of emer gency to be ex tended,” Chiba Gov. Ken saku Morita said
Mon day.
Suga had pre vi ously ex pressed cau tion about lift ing the dec la ra tion in the Tokyo area, ex plain ing dur ing
a ses sion of the Lower House Bud get Com mit tee on Tues day that he will “mon i tor the sit u a tion
up un til the last mo ment.”
On Jan. 7, Suga de clared a state of emer gency un til Feb. 7 for the greater Tokyo metropoli tan area,
which con sists of the cap i tal and three ad ja cent pre fec tures: Kana gawa, Chiba and Saitama.
The or der was ex panded to 11 pre fec tures less than a week later, then ex tended un til March 7 in all
but Tochigi Pre fec ture.


On Mon day, the or der was lifted early in six pre fec tures, mak ing the cap i tal re gion the final part of
the coun try wait ing to re open .
While the coun try’s first state of emer gency, which was de clared in April last year, tar geted vol un tary
closure re quests at var i ous busi nesses, the sec ond emer gency has taken aim at restau rants and bars.
Crit ics have said that crack ing down on bars and restau rants won’t ad e quately con tain the virus, since
in fec tions that oc curred within homes, apart ments and other res i dences have con sis tently ac counted
for the largest por tion of new cases.
In Fe bru ary, re vi sions to the coun try’s virus laws made it pos si ble for mu nic i pal gov er nors to im pose
mon e tary fines on lo cal busi nesses that refuse to com ply with busi ness closure re quests. Later that
month, the Tokyo Metropoli tan Gov ern ment is sued closure re quests to 34 non com pli ant busi nesses
for the first time based on the re vised leg is la tion, en abling au thor i ties to im pose fines should they not
com ply.
While the coun try’s first state of emer gency, which was de clared in April last year, tar geted vol un tary
closure re quests at var i ous busi nesses, the sec ond emer gency has taken aim at restau rants and bars.
Crit ics have said that crack ing down on bars and restau rants won’t ad e quately con tain the virus, since
in fec tions that oc curred within homes, apart ments and other res i dences have con sis tently ac counted
for the largest por tion of new cases.
In Fe bru ary, re vi sions to the coun try’s virus laws made it pos si ble for mu nic i pal gov er nors to im pose
mon e tary fines on lo cal busi nesses that refuse to com ply with busi ness closure re quests. Later that
month, the Tokyo Metropoli tan Gov ern ment is sued closure re quests to 34 non com pli ant busi nesses
for the first time based on the re vised leg is la tion, en abling au thor i ties to im pose fines should they not
com ply.