Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, wearing a mask, speaks at an Upper House Audit Committee meeting on April 1. (Takeshi Iwashita)

Declaring of a state of emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic would not lead to an immediate lockdown of cities, according to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. 

“If you ask me if we can enforce a lockdown like France, the answer is no,” Abe said at an Upper House Audit Committee meeting on April 1.

Abe was referring to the French government issuing its citizens a curfew and punishing violators of unusually strong measures limiting personal freedoms, which have been in place for weeks there.

The Diet passed a revision to a special measures law on March 13, allowing the government a freer hand to deal with the new coronavirus outbreak.

Once Abe declares a state of emergency based on the revised law, governors can ask their residents to stay inside their homes. But such a request would have no legal force.

Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of economic revitalization, also said the revised law “doesn’t allow us to enforce things like lockdowns.”

The Diet also passed revisions related to the Infectious Disease Law to allow the government to control access to buildings and regulate traffic.

The committee discussed these measures in relation to a possible lockdown.

Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said the revision allows the government to regulate traffic so it can seal off access to a place that needs to be sanitized.

“It has a different purpose and not for a lockdown,” Kato said.

Urban bars and nightclubs in the meantime are suffering as they watch their customers vanish. Local governments are urging the public to stay out of such places to avoid spreading or contracting the novel coronavirus, dealing those businesses a major financial blow.

Abe rejected a possibility to compensate such bars and nightclubs at the meeting.

“It is difficult for the nation to compensate for individual losses,” Abe said, underscoring that the government has no plans to provide direct compensation.

But he said the government will provide support if they keep their businesses running and maintain employment.

On the other hand, Abe promised the government “will provide support” to the airline industry, which has suffered a huge hit from the pandemic.