Japan Government Extends State of Emergency

Above, Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto during normal times. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

We may complain about the measures taken in the U.S. during the pandemic, but at least we're not in Japan.

Several prefectures in Japan have been under a state of emergency for weeks precipitated by surges in coronavirus infections. Getting the Japanese citizenry vaccinated has been lagging. All this has been going on with the postponed Tokyo Summer Olympics only weeks away. This has led the Asahi Shimbun to call for the cancelation of the Olympics.

Now, the government has extended the state of emergency for another month.

According to The Japan News (Yomiuri Shimbun):

The government announced its decision on Friday to extend the state of emergency for nine prefectures including Tokyo and Osaka through June 20.

The decision was reached on Friday evening at a meeting of the government’s COVID-19 task force led by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, after the subcommittee on basic coronavirus measures approved the decision in a morning meeting.

“Areas subject to the state of emergency have remained in Stage 4,” Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of coronavirus measures, said at the subcommittee meeting, referring to the most serious level. “The number of seriously ill patients has been around 1,400 nationwide. The health care system is facing a severe situation.”

The state of emergency for Tokyo, Osaka, Aichi, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Hokkaido, Hyogo, Kyoto and Okayama was scheduled to end May 31.

It will be some time before things in Japan return to "normal" so that foreign visitors can go there.

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