Japan Plans To End State of Emergency September 30

Above, Tokyo's Kappabashi Kitchen Town. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Japan plans to end its state of emergency at the end of the month. Does this mean that foreign tourists will be allowed into the country soon?

Not necessarily. There has been no mention of allowing foreign tourists into Japan. But if coronavirus infections continue to drop, then a decision on permitting foreign tourists in will not be too far away.

On the state of emergency, the Asahi Shimbun reported:

The government plans to lift the COVID-19 state of emergency for all 19 prefectures that will end on Sept. 30 as scheduled, sources said.

It wants to avoid issuing pre-emergency measures for those prefectures once the emergency ends since the infection situation in Japan has been recently improving.

“I think that we can lift the state of emergency at the end of September if the current infection situation continues (to trend downward),” health minister Norihisa Tamura said during a Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) TV debate program on Sept. 26.

The government will effectively decide on its plan at a Sept. 27 meeting to be attended by ministers responsible for responding to the health crisis.

If the government’s expert panel on countermeasures against COVID-19 discusses and approves the plan on Sept. 28, the government will make its official decision at the task force meeting.

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