[Asia Economy Reporter Son Sunhee] The Japanese government fully lifted the 'state of emergency' declared due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) on the 25th. This comes 48 days after the first declaration.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced at a press conference that the COVID-19 state of emergency, which had been maintained in four metropolitan areas including Tokyo, Saitama Prefecture, Kanagawa Prefecture, Chiba Prefecture, and Hokkaido, would be completely lifted.
Earlier, the Japanese government had lifted the state of emergency in 42 out of 47 prefectures nationwide, and on this day, by additionally lifting the state of emergency in five areas including Tokyo, the emergency was lifted throughout Japan.
After the press conference, Prime Minister Abe was reported to formally decide on this at the scheduled government task force meeting. Furthermore, the Japanese government plans to evaluate the infection situation approximately every three weeks and gradually lift restrictions such as refraining from going out and event limitations.
There have been criticisms that there were insufficient polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to confirm COVID-19 infections in Japan, and with the state of emergency being lifted faster than expected, attention is focused on the future trend of infection spread.
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