#Greater Tokyo Area to Come Out of State of Emergency on March 21

Yoshihide Suga on March 18 (via NHK)

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced tonight that Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures of Kanagawa, Chiba, and Saitama will have their State of Emergency declarations lifted as scheduled on March 21. The Greater Tokyo Area has been in a State of Emergency since January 8 due to COVID-19 and has seen the declaration extended twice, once for a month on February 2, and another for two weeks on March 6.

Suga said at the press conference that “the Pinpoint countermeasures taken, mainly by shortening business hours of restaurants, have produced great results, reducing new infections in Tokyo and outer three prefectures by more than 80%.” 

This, combined with the lower hospital rates, has pushed the central government to let the State of Emergency expire. The hospital rates in the four prefectures are much lower than the 50% necessary to be classified in “Stage 4,” and are looking much better than the rates two weeks ago.

A closed Yoyogi Park in Harajuku on March 17 (photo: Daryl Harding)

Since the State of Emergency was declared in the Greater Tokyo Area, cases have gone from 4,036 new cases per day to 720 cases in the region on March 18. Since the State of Emergency was extended two weeks ago, the rate of infection over a 7-day period has increased in the Greater Tokyo Area by 1.01 times over the week prior, with Tokyo recording over 400 cases yesterday, the highest in a month. Overall in Japan, the rate of infection over a 7-day period has increased to 1.09 times the week before. 

Because of this, Miyagi prefecture has declared its own State of Emergency, separate from the central government. While the prefecture will not be asking for businesses to shorten hours, they will be going on a PCR testing spree in Sendai City, the capital of the prefecture, and requesting residents to not go out to late-night establishments or have hanami (cherry blossom) parties.

Akihabara on March 17, 2021 (photo: Daryl Harding)

Tokyo and the three prefectures will continue to request restaurants and entertainment businesses to close at 9 PM (up from 8 PM). To aid in this request, the four prefectures will be cracking down on businesses that don’t comply, with Tokyo already sending a warning to a chain of izakaya in Minato Ward which have stayed open past 8 PM. If the businesses don’t comply after the warning, they will be fined 300,000 yen (US$2,751) per day. This is the first time these new powers have been used since they came into effect.

The prefectures are continuing to ask their residents to not go outside unnecessarily, and for the event restrictions to stay in place until March 31. This means events must limit attendance to either 5,000 people (including staff), or 50% of the capacity of the venue, whichever is the least amount of people.

Sources: NHK (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), The Japan Times

Thumbnail and header image via NHK

If you or someone you know is living in Japan, coronavirus-based English resources are available at NHK World Japan. 

—- 

Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.