Japan ends states of emergency early

Japan has lifted the state of emergency in Tokyo and four other prefectures as it bids to revive the nation’s struggling economy as soon as possible. 

The government removed the declaration in Hokkaido, Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures on May 25 after consulting with infectious disease experts.

Those were the final areas under Covid-19 restrictions after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cleared the declaration in 39 prefectures on May 14 and three prefectures in the Kansai region – Osaka, Hyogo and Kyoto — on May 21.

The decision to lift the declarations before their scheduled conclusions on May 31 comes as Japan has managed to keep the death toll relatively low compared to other countries, reports the Japan Times.

However, Abe warns “in the worst-case scenario, there may be the unfortunate possibility of reimposing the state of emergency if the speed of infections rises again”.

Abe also revealed the government will approve a second supplementary budget bill on May 27 to beef up economic measures, saying the total scale of the first and second relief packages will be about ¥200 trillion (NZ$3tn), about 40 per cent of the country’s GDP. 

The budget will deliver employee benefits and rescue plans for small businesses under the name of economic recovery, which Abe says is the administration’s “most important priority”.

Japan’s economy slipped into recession <https://autofile.co.nz/japan-slips-into-recession->in the last quarter, and analysts expect another 22 per cent contraction in April-June.

Abe first imposed the emergency declaration in seven prefectures on April 7 and expanded it to cover the entire country on April 16. 

As of May 25, about 16,600 people had been infected with the novel coronavirus in Japan and roughly 840 people had died.