Photo/Illutration Pupils play in the grounds of this elementary school in Nara. (Miki Takenaka)

Almost half of all ward and city governments contacted by The Asahi Shimbun will continue to close their schools due to the coronavirus outbreak, with some not planning to fully reopen until after the end of the Golden Week national holidays in early May.

Forty-six prefectural capital cities, the 23 wards in Tokyo and other major cities were contacted about plans for their schools.

Of the 74 local governments contacted, 35, or 47 percent of the total, said they would continue with school closures.

The decision follows an April 1 statement issued by a government panel of experts on infectious diseases that one option for areas where coronavirus infections continue to increase was to maintain school closures that have been in place since early March.

But 36 city governments said they planned to go ahead with the start of the new school year next week. Three local governments were undecided as of 5 p.m. on April 3 about whether to open or close their schools.

Of the 35 local governments that will continue to close their schools, 20 Tokyo wards as well as the city governments of Saitama, Fukui, Kumamoto and Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, do not plan to resume schools until after Golden Week.

But even among those local governments, there are a range of plans for having students attend school periodically.

For example, the Saitama city government plans to have students go to school once every three days, but only for the mornings.

Fukui city will open its elementary school doors on weekdays from the morning until 3 p.m., with junior high schools remaining open until 4 p.m. While classes will not be held, students can use the school buildings when the premises are open.

The Kumamoto city government will ask students to turn up at school once every two weeks, but school buildings will not be open the rest of the time and the city government is also urging children to not play in parks while schools are closed.

The recent sharp increase in coronavirus infections in Tokyo is behind the decision for schools in 20 of the capital’s 23 wards to remain closed until after Golden Week.

But even in those wards, there are differences about having students show up at school periodically even though no classes are held.

However, Setagaya Ward, which is grappling with the largest number of infections among Tokyo’s wards, announced it would postpone plans for small groups of students to go to school as well as planned April 6 and 7 ceremonies to start the new school year and welcome first-graders.

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