Japanese PM Shinzo Abe declared the State of Emergency on 7 April 2020.
He started his speech with appreciation towards the citizen for their support to the nation. Whether Japan can survive without medical care breakdown or not is depends on the behavior of each of us.
The declaration authorizes the governors in the seven prefectures (Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka).
Here are the things that Japanese government requests to the citizens and promises.
What PM Abe requests to the citizen:
- Reduce the chance of contacting people about 70-80% till May 6.
- Wear a mask when going out and avoid crowded places
- Refrain from going out for a bar or Karaoke
- It’s ok to go out for a walk or jogging but avoid crowded place
- Each of us should behave as if “I might be infected”
- Refrain from going to the local cities (don’t bring the virus to the not infected areas)
- Work from home as much as possible
What PM Abe promises to the citizen:
- Secured hotel rooms for infected patients with mild symptoms. Metropolitan area: 10,000 rooms, Kasai: 3,000 rooms. Olympics facilities will be used for this purpose as well (about 800 bedrooms)
- Enforce the world’s largest economic measures: 108 trillion yen (990,760,105,813 USD)
- Will provide cash to families, companies and self-employed about 6 trillion yen (55,026,620,488 USD)
- Provide 2,000,000 yen to a SME and 1,000,000 yen to a self-employed if their sales drastically decreased due to this pandemic situation
- Grace for tax and social insurance payment
- Public transport will be operated as usual, no road closure (It’s not a city Lockdown)
- Food, logistics and retail sales – won’t be stopped
- Expand the usage of Avigan for the treatment of COVID-19 patients
Tokyo Metropolitan emergency measures
Each of the seven prefectures governor will define their emergency measures later on.
Here is the Tokyo Metropolis emergency measures (plan).
- Commercial facilities: Daily necessity shops will be open but other shops are requested to be closed
- Theaters (movie, live house, etc.) are requested to be closed
- Entertainment facilities (e.g. comic cafe, Karaoke): requested to be closed
- Hair salon: requested to be closed
- Izakaya: requested to be closed
- Educational facilities (schools): requested to be closed
- Nursery: Requested shorter operating hours
- Restaurants: Requested shorter operating hours
- Open as usual: supermarket, convenience store, hospital, clinic, pharmacy, hotel, public transport, bank, public bath, etc.
If you’re in Japan, especially in Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Osaka, Hyogo or Fukuoka, please stay at home as much as possible and stay safe! Currently, we’re all having hard time in worldwide, but bright future awaits us after overcoming this chaos! みんなでがんばろう！