COVID-19: Japan 'not planning' state of emergency but pressure mounts on PM Shinzo Abe

Image courtesy: Reuters

TOKYO: Japan has no plan to declare a coronavirus state of emergency from April, its top government spokesman said on Monday, even as pressure mounted on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to take decisive action as cases climb in Tokyo. As much of the rest of the world has gone into strict lockdowns to fight the coronavirus, Japan has so far managed to avoid the kind of outbreaks that have ravaged parts of Europe and the United States.

However, a recent spike in Tokyo, along with the death of a beloved comedian on Monday, appeared to be driving home the potential risk for many Japanese. A top doctor called on Abe to act before it was "too late".

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike was due to hold a news conference at 8:00 p.m. (1100 GMT), to make another appeal to the public to curb activities to prevent the spread of the virus, NHK reported. Koike last week appealed to Tokyo residents to avoid all but necessary outings over the weekend.

"It`s not true that the government is planning on declaring a state of emergency from April 1," Yoshihide Suga, the government`s top spokesman, told a news conference.

However, Japan will raise its defences against imported cases by banning the entry of foreigners travelling from the United States, China, South Korea and most of Europe, the Asahi newspaper reported on Monday.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the government had not made any decision on bans. But a top Jaanese doctor called on Abe to issue an emergency decree to fight the outbreak before it was too late.

"If we wait until an explosive increase in infections before declaring an emergency, it will be too late," Satoshi Kamayachi, an executive board member of the Japan Medical Association, told a news conference, in comments carried by broadcaster Nippon Television.

Suga, the top government spokesman, also said an expected telephone call between Abe and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), later on Monday had nothing to do with any decision on whether to call a state of emergency.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party called for a stimulus package worth 60 trillion yen ($556 billion) that includes direct government spending of about 20 trillion yen.

In an effort to limit the economic damage of the outbreak, the government also plans to issue more government bond, by $149 billion from July, to fund a massive stimulus package, sources told Reuters.

Any lockdown in Japan would look different to mandatory measures imposed in some parts of Europe and the United States. By law, local authorities are only permitted to issue requests for people to stay at home, which are not legally binding.

Prime Minister Abe has pledged to deploy a huge stimulus package, bigger than one compiled during the global financial crisis, to combat the outbreak, which had infected nearly 1,900 people in Japan, with 56 deaths, as of Sunday.
Those numbers exclude 712 cases and 10 deaths from a cruise ship that was moored near Tokyo last month, public broadcaster NHK said.

Sunday`s daily tally of 68 new cases in the capital was a record. Bringing the tension home to many was the news that comedian Ken Shimura, a household name in Japan, had become its first celebrity to die of the virus.