Japan Lifts COVID-19 State of Emergency Early in 6 Regions Outside the Capital Area

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga
[Photo by Yonhap News]

The Japanese government decided on the 26th to lift the COVID-19 state of emergency early in regions outside the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Yoshihide Suga, Prime Minister of Japan, announced at the COVID-19 task force meeting held at the Prime Minister's Office that the state of emergency for six prefectures, including Osaka Prefecture, will be lifted by the end of this month.

The Japanese government originally planned to lift the state of emergency on the 7th of next month but moved up the end date by about a week for six out of the ten regions.

The regions where the state of emergency will be lifted at the end of this month are Osaka Prefecture, Kyoto Prefecture, Hyogo Prefecture, Fukuoka Prefecture, Gifu Prefecture, and Aichi Prefecture.

The government made this decision considering that the number of new COVID-19 cases has significantly decreased compared to when the state of emergency was reimposed, and concerns about the collapse of the medical system have also lessened.

However, the state of emergency will be maintained in the four metropolitan prefectures of Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa, and Chiba. These areas are expected to have the state of emergency lifted on the 7th of next month.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government reimposed the state of emergency on the 8th of last month in the four metropolitan areas including Tokyo, and expanded it to ten prefectures nationwide starting from the 14th of the same month.

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