Quasi-emergency measures will end next week, says Prime Minister Kishida.
QUICK FACTS:
- Japan’s government will fully lift the COVID-19 quasi-emergency measures currently covering 18 of the country’s 47 prefectures when they expire on Monday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced during a Wednesday news conference, The Japan Times reports.
- Kishida pointed to improvement in Japan’s infection rate across the country at a liaison meeting Tuesday between the government and the ruling bloc. “We’ll move toward exiting the sixth wave of infections,” he said.
- The Kishida government had also cited an increase in the number of vaccinated people, the low risk of severe illness posed by the omicron variant, and the need to fully resume economic activities to boost the economy.
- “We have met the state-set requirements for ending quasi-emergency measures in all indicators,” Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said in a request to the central government Tuesday. “We’re not in a situation to extend the measures.”
JAPAN PREPPING FOR MORE TRAVEL:
- The Japanese government is preparing to expand subsidies for local travel on April 1, in expectation of a resumption of its “Go To Travel” campaign, launched in July 2020, aimed at aiding the pandemic-hit domestic tourism sector, Japan Times notes.
- The subsidies currently apply to trips within each prefecture, but they will also apply to travel across prefectural borders within the same regional block.
- Many business operators in the tourism industry will rely on the Go To Travel campaign, and the Kishida administration is trying to resume it as quickly as possible in order to win support for the ruling coalition in this summer’s House of Councilors election.
- Chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said on Feb. 28 that the government will gradually increase international traffic by reviewing “infection situations in Japan and abroad, as well as the demand of Japanese nationals returning,” The Epoch Times reports.
BACKGROUND:
- Japan’s move comes after the 18 prefectures decided not to seek a quasi-emergency extension, Japan Times reports.
- Professor Hitoshi Oshitani of Tohoku University, who is also a lead adviser on the government’s pandemic response, said that while the current Omicron wave is not over in Japan, the COVID-19 measures may no longer be effective at controlling public behavior, Epoch Times notes.
