Japan Seeks COVID-19 Exit Strategy... When Will the State of Emergency Be Lifted?

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] The Japanese government under Shinzo Abe has begun actively seeking an exit strategy, including lifting the state of emergency declared due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). The Japanese government has extended the state of emergency deadline to the 31st of this month and plans to establish criteria for lifting it soon.

According to Kyodo News on the 10th, Prime Minister Abe discussed COVID-19 measures the previous day at the Prime Minister's Office with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, Minister for Economic Revitalization Yasutoshi Nishimura, and Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Katsunobu Kato. The meeting reportedly included analysis of overseas cases such as Germany, where COVID-19 restrictions have been eased.

On the 4th, Prime Minister Abe extended the state of emergency declared across all 47 prefectures nationwide from the 6th to the 31st of this month. At that time, Abe stated that he would seek early lifting of the emergency on a regional basis after consulting experts, and the Japanese government plans to establish criteria for lifting the state of emergency by the 14th.

Minister for Economic Revitalization Nishimura appeared on NHK's Sunday Talk Show that day and said that most of the 34 local governments outside the 13 "specific caution prefectures" with high numbers of COVID-19 infections "are likely to come into view for early lifting of the state of emergency." He also expressed the view that the 13 specific caution prefectures might lift the state of emergency before the end of this month depending on the situation.

The criteria for lifting the state of emergency include ▲weekly new confirmed cases ▲new confirmed cases per population by region ▲and the medical care system for severe cases.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Japan has significantly decreased since the beginning of this month. After the state of emergency declaration on the 7th of last month, the average daily new confirmed cases until the 30th of the same month were 425, but from the 1st to the 8th of this month, it dropped sharply to 170. In particular, from the 6th to the 9th of this month, new confirmed cases were counted at around 100 per day, clearly confirming the downward trend.

Accordingly, workplaces and schools that had been closed are planning to resume work and classes. According to surveys conducted by Asahi Shimbun and Mainichi Shimbun respectively, among the 47 prefectures nationwide, 8 prefectures did not extend closure requests after the 7th of this month, and 18 prefectures reduced the scope of closure requests. According to a survey by Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 16 local governments have announced plans to resume classes at public high schools within this month.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.