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Tokyo lifts all coronavirus restrictions on businesses, seeking to spur economy

  • Restrictions were eased despite the capital still recording double-digit daily new infections
  • Infections spread in Tokyo from late March, with the daily new case total eclipsing 200 in mid-April

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People dine at the Omoide-Yokocho alleyway in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, Japan. Photo: Bloomberg

Tokyo lifted all restrictions on businesses on Friday amid signs that the coronavirus pandemic is waning in the Japanese capital, although concerns remain over a potential second wave of infections.

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People in Japan will no longer be asked to refrain from crossing prefectural borders as the central government also lifted the restriction in the hope of giving a boost to the country’s economic activities that had been slowed by the pandemic.

The metropolitan government withdrew its temporary closure request on live music venues, nightclubs and similar entertainment establishments where people come into close contact in enclosed spaces, exiting the last phase of its three-step restriction easing process.

Most other businesses had already begun operating under previous steps.

People wearing protective masks line up at a tapioca shop in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, Japan. Photo: Bloomberg
People wearing protective masks line up at a tapioca shop in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, Japan. Photo: Bloomberg
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Eateries were allowed to return to business as normal with the lifting of the government request that they shorten opening hours.

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