Japanese Government Lifts COVID-19 State of Emergency in 39 of 47 Prefectures

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] The Japanese government is scheduled to hold a novel coronavirus task force meeting on the 14th and decide to lift the state of emergency declaration for the entire country regarding the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), according to a report by Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

According to the report, the Japanese government will hold a meeting of an advisory committee consisting of experts in the morning to analyze the infection status in each region, and then decide to lift the state of emergency at the task force meeting held in the afternoon.

The regions where the state of emergency will be lifted on this day are 39 out of the 47 prefectures (metropolitan governments).

The areas subject to lifting the state of emergency include 5 prefectures such as Ibaraki, Gifu, Aichi, Ishikawa, and Fukuoka, as well as 34 prefectures that do not belong to the "specified warning prefectures."

The Japanese government’s early lifting of the state of emergency in many regions is due to the recent slowdown in the increase of COVID-19 confirmed cases.

The 8 prefectures with a high number of COVID-19 infections?Tokyo-to, Osaka-fu, Hokkaido, Saitama-ken, Chiba-ken, Kanagawa, Kyoto-fu, and Hyogo-ken?will continue to be maintained as specified warning areas.

Going forward, the Japanese government plans to reconsider the lifting of the state of emergency by region around the 21st.

Earlier, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency on the 7th of last month for 7 prefectures including Tokyo-to due to the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases in Japan, and on the 16th, expanded it nationwide.

Despite the state of emergency declaration, as the spread of COVID-19 continued, Prime Minister Abe extended the deadline from the original June 6th to the 31st on the 4th.

Meanwhile, the daily number of COVID-19 confirmed cases in Japan has been below 100 for four consecutive days until the previous day, significantly reduced compared to the daily average of 425 cases last month.

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