Tokyo and the six prefectures covered by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's state of emergency declaration said on April 8 they won't accept his refusal to compensate businesses impacted by it.

The National Governors’ Association agreed to urge the central government to compensate businesses for their losses if they bow to governors' requests to scrap events or close.

The agreement was reached in a videoconference between the governors of the capital and Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka prefectures and seven other prefectures not covered by the declaration including Kyoto.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, however, broke from the group covered by the declaration in a later videoconference, insisting she planned to go ahead with requests for businesses to shut.

“We do not have the luxury of taking our time to make a decision. I would like to go ahead with measures in line with the circumstances that we face," Koike said at the video conference.

The association also released an emergency message asking residents of the capital and the six prefectures to refrain from leaving their homes and called on residents of other prefectures not to travel to the areas unless absolutely necessary. 

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on April 7 said the central government would not provide compensation to individual companies, during a news conference after his announcement of the state of emergency.

But the governors agreed to pursue it anyway on the grounds that their financial burdens could be crippling if the prefectural governments get stuck with shouldering the compensation.

The governors’ association also wants the central government to pay all costs associated with leasing hotels to accommodate individuals confirmed to have the virus but who have no symptoms or only minor ones.

Despite the governors' unity on compensation, a wide gap remained over asking businesses in their jurisdictions to close for the duration of the state of emergency, which will last until at least May 6.

Governors were given the authority to make such a request under the revised special measures law to deal with the virus outbreak.

Kanagawa Governor Yuji Kuroiwa said he would gradually ask for restrictions on use of commercial facilities after confirming the effects of the request he made to Kanagawa residents to refrain from leaving their homes.

But Koike said she wanted to ask a wide range of businesses to shut down to discourage residents from congested and unventilated spaces where they would come in close contact with others.

Tokyo has more than 1,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, greatly exceeding the numbers of neighboring prefectures.

Koike plans to release on April 10 a list of specific facilities and business sectors that she will ask to close during the state of emergency.

Tokyo has been unable to announce what businesses it wants to close because central government officials have repeatedly raised concerns that a wide-ranging request would have devastating effects on the economy.

Koike and the six other governors covered by the state of emergency also held a videoconference with Yasutoshi Nishimura, the state minister of economic revitalization who is tasked with implementing the special measures law to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

Differences emerged during the meeting between Koike and the six governors over how far to go with state of emergency requests, sources said.

Koike said she wanted to ask residents to remain indoors and businesses and facility operators to shut down.

But Kanagawa’s Kuroiwa said he could not ask businesses to close until a program to compensate for losses stemming from the closure was in place.

A number of other governors said the Tokyo metropolitan government should only ask businesses to shut after monitoring results of the call on residents to remain at home.

Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura told Nishimura that the high financial burden his prefecture would have to bear to compensate businesses made it extremely difficult to ask them to close.

A Tokyo metropolitan government official insisted the capital should be allowed to proceed with issuing its own requests to businesses, considering the large number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the capital.

(This article was written by Rihito Karube and Yusuke Morishita.)