Japan to revamp emergency laws
Abe pushing change as cases top 1,000
TOKYO: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government plans to implement a special law effective for up to two years aimed at better responding to the coronavirus outbreak and enabling it to declare a state of emergency if needed, ruling party sources said yesterday, as the number of infections reported in Japan topped 1,000.
Mr Abe is hoping to secure enough support from opposition parties critical of what they see as his government’s relaxed response to the outbreak, as the ruling coalition wants a bill to clear parliament in mid-March.
The government plans to revise the existing law on novel influenza so it can take similar steps for two years until February 2022 against the new coronavirus, which causes Covid-19, a pneumonia-like respiratory disease, according to the sources.
Covid-19 was officially classified in Japan as a designated infectious disease in February.
“We want to seek a revision [to the influenza law] that would allow us to take measures against the new coronavirus,” Mr Abe told a parliamentary session in the House of Councillors.
If the law is amended and once a state of emergency is declared by the prime minister for specific parts of the country, local governors can accordingly demand residents to stay indoors, call for school closures and limit the use of facilities in which large numbers of people gather.
Mr Abe and leaders from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Democratic Party for the People and two other smaller opposition parties, are expected to meet later in the day to discuss the new legislation.
The opposition camp has been criticising Mr Abe for causing public confusion with his abrupt request last Thursday to close all schools from this week through a spring break that typically ends in early April.
As part of efforts to reduce group transmission risks, Mr Abe has also asked organisers of big entertainment and sporting events to cancel or postpone them. Under the current legal framework, Mr Abe does not have the legal basis to enforce them.
The government is compiling a fresh emergency package by using a 270 billion yen (78 billion baht) reserve fund for the current fiscal year through March to contain the outbreak and minimise its impact on an economy increasingly seen as on the cusp of a recession.
As of yesterday, the number of confirmed cases rose to 1,001 in Japan after one new case was reported in Yamaguchi Prefecture, marking the first in the Chugoku region.