Japan orders state of emergency but without a strict lockdown
• Lenient regime with no enforcement mechanisms and penalties allows many shops to stay open and public transport to keep running
Japan declared a state of emergency on Tuesday owing to a spike in coronavirus cases, ramping up efforts to contain infections but stopping short of strict lockdowns other counries are enforcing.
The government has come under mounting pressure to tackle an outbreak that is small by global standards but worries Japanese medical experts, who have warned that local healthcare systems are already overstretched.
“As I decided that a situation feared to gravely affect people’s lives and the economy has occurred ... I am declaring a state of emergency,” said Prime Minister Abe Shinzo.
The move allows governors in seven affected regions including Tokyo to ask people to stay at home and request businesses to shut their doors.
But many supermarkets and other shops will stay open, transport will continue to operate and there are also neither enforcement mechanisms nor penalties laid out for those who fail to comply with government requests.
“Although a state of emergency is declared, it won’t mean a city lockdown as seen overseas,” Abe said.
“We will prevent the spread of infection while maintaining economic and social services such as public transport as much as possible.”
Pressure to declare an emergency had increased after Tokyo reported several days of record infections, with 143 new cases logged on Sunday.
Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike has already asked residents of the capital to avoid unnecessary outings and work from home, but had pushed for an emergency declaration to give her requests legal strength.
Seven regions are covered by the month-long declaration: Tokyo, neighbouring Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama, the western hub of Osaka and neighbouring Hyogo and the country’s southwestern region of Fukuoka.
The measure will last to the end of the Golden Week holiday period, when much of the population travels in a rare break.
“It may cause inconvenience in daily life, but I call for everyone’s co-operation because lives are at stake,” Koike told reporters earlier.
WE WILL PREVENT THE SPREAD OF INFECTION WHILE MAINTAINING ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SERVICES SUCH AS TRANSPORT
The measure also allows governors to commandeer property for medical purposes and close public facilities like schools, many of which have already shut down.
The economic effects of the measure and the broader global pandemic have raised concern of a recession in Japan.
Abe on Monday unveiled plans for a stimulus package worth about $1-trillion, or 20% of GDP. Japan has so far been spared the severity of the Covid19 virus outbreak experienced in parts of Europe and the US, with nearly 4,000 confirmed infections and 80 deaths.
But medical experts have repeatedly sounded the alarm in recent weeks, citing the rapid increase of infections in parts of the country.
And on Monday, doctors in Tokyo said that the situation in the Japanese capital was already in “critical condition”.
In a bid to ease the pressure, rules requiring people infected by the virus to stay in hospital even if their symptoms are mild have been relaxed.
Koike said that hotels would be designated as quarantine facilities for those not in a serious condition.
The government has also promised to step up testing capacity and the number of beds and ventilators available to treat patients in a serious condition.
The state of emergency is a relatively relaxed approach to lockdown compared with those in other parts of the world, a function of Japan’s legal system, which restricts the government’s ability to limit the movement of citizens.
“Japan is still haunted by the negative legacy of the war and the oppression of its citizens,” said Yoshinobu Yamamoto, an emeritus professor of international politics at the University of Tokyo. But he warned that there could be calls for stronger measures if the coronavirus outbreak continued to spread.
Japan registered its first case of the virus in mid-January, and came under heavy criticism for its handling of the virus-racked Diamond Princess, where an onboard quarantine ended with 11 deaths and more than 700 people falling ill.
In the capital, people expressed support for the state of emergency, with some saying that they felt it should have been declared sooner.
“When you see on TV what’s going on in New York with the cases doubling within three or four days, it really sends chills down my spine,” said Mitsuo Oshiyama. “I don’t understand why the government waited so long.”