Japan is preparing for a state of emergency as Covid-19 cases increase

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At a New Year’s press conference on Monday, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said an emergency declaration was being considered and would apply to Tokyo and the three neighboring prefectures of Chiba, Saitama and Kanagawa. The governors of all four regions have urged Suga to do so already as cases grow.

“If necessary, we will not hesitate to send medical personnel from the Self-Defense Force,” Suga added, saying the government will support medical institutions to ensure they are not overwhelmed.

Suga did not say when the government would make a decision or what restrictions could be adopted. Japan’s first state of emergency, declared last spring, relatively early during the pandemic, lasted more than a month and saw schools and non-essential businesses closed.

The Japanese authorities are currently limited in their powers to punish those who violate the restrictions, even in a state of emergency, which the Suga government intends to change to allow local governments to force compliance.
The prime minister, who took power in September last year after Shinzo Abe’s resignation, has seen his approval decline in recent weeks, in part because he has dealt with the pandemic.

On Sunday, Japan recorded 3,150 new cases and 51 deaths, bringing the national total to 244,559, with more than 3,612 deaths. The largest region in Tokyo was one of the hardest hit, with 816 new cases on Sunday after Thursday, setting a new record of 1,337 days.

Japan confirmed last week the first cases of the new, potentially more infectious variant of the coronavirus in the UK, prompting the government to ban all foreign travelers from entering the country.
Cases across the country have risen in recent weeks, partly due to cold winter weather and remote social fatigue.

Japan was one of the first countries affected by the pandemic, but the government managed to keep cases at bay by adopting strict border controls, investing efforts in tracking contacts and pushing citizens to practice social distance. The efforts were largely successful, with Japan being able to avoid the kind of strict blockades adopted in other parts of the world.

Japanese health officials have repeatedly called on citizens to cut back on their daily activities, stay vigilant and eat only in small numbers, but this no longer seems to be enough to stop the spread of the pandemic.

“Japan’s response is too slow and confusing, reflecting a lack of leadership and strategy. On the one hand, they have encouraged domestic travel and outdoor food, on the other hand, they have only asked people to be careful,” said Kenji Shibuya. , director of the Institute for Population Health at King’s College London. “The government is practically asking people to act voluntarily, but it is not doing more than that.”

Suga rejected calls for a state of emergency in November, citing the advice of an advisory group that hospitals are still relatively empty. However, the total number of cases in Japan has doubled since then.
Japanese officials are believed to be wary of introducing a blockade or other emergency measures for fear of hurting the economy. The country is also once again facing difficult decisions around the Olympic Games, which were to take place last summer, but were eventually postponed as the pandemic spread around the world.
The Tokyo Games are scheduled to take place this summer from July 23 to August 8, according to the International Olympic Committee, with reduced opening and closing ceremonies, in line with a “general simplification of the Games.”

If and how many foreign spectators will be able to participate in the Olympics, it will be resolved in the spring.

A successful Olympics will probably depend on how quickly vaccination schemes can be launched worldwide, not least in Japan itself. Inoculation programs should not start in Japan until the end of February, well behind other countries. At Monday’s news conference, Suga said elderly health workers and the elderly will be the first groups to receive vaccinations, adding that the government has advanced the timing due to the latest outbreak.
However, the Japanese authorities will also have to deal with what is expected to be a widespread antipathy to the shooting: Japan is “among the countries with the lowest confidence in vaccines in the world,” according to a recent study by The Lancet.

Suga promised to “take the initiative” in vaccination and said Monday that a successful Olympics would serve as “proof that human beings have overcome the coronavirus.”

Junko Ogura reported from Tokyo, Japan, James Griffiths reported from Hong Kong. CNN’s Joshua Berlinger and Selina Wang contributed to the reporting.

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