Coronavirus: Japan ends its state of emergency in Tokyo region
- Local authorities will continue to ask restaurants and bars to close early until the end of March, pushing back the time by an hour to 9pm
- Health minister Norihisa Tamura said the government was also considering requiring all inbound travellers to undergo tests for new variants of the coronavirus
Japan ended the Covid-19 state of emergency midnight on Sunday in the Tokyo metropolitan region, the last remaining area of the country that had been under the measure since early January.
The emergency in Tokyo and neighbouring Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama prefectures was lifted despite concern that the country could see a resurgence as it gears up for the academic and business year, with cases of highly infectious variant strains continuing to rise.
Local authorities will continue to ask restaurants and bars to close early until the end of March, while pushing back the time by an hour to 9pm. But as the requests are not legally binding outside a state of emergency, there will not be any penalties for establishments that do not comply.
The central government, which will expand testing and detection of the mutant strains, is aiming to avoid another state of emergency by progressing with vaccinations and strengthening medical systems.
On an NHK television programme on Sunday, health minister Norihisa Tamura said the government was also considering requiring all inbound travellers to undergo tests for new variants of the coronavirus. The stricter border controls currently only apply to 24 designated countries where coronavirus variants have been detected.
