Photo/Illutration Cleaning personnel outnumber waiting passengers at Tokyo Station's bullet train platform on April 25. (Hikaru Uchida)

Golden Week, a highly anticipated holiday period when millions of Japanese go traveling, was a nonstarter April 25 as people heeded calls to stay home because of the new coronavirus pandemic.

Shinkansen platforms, normally teeming with passengers heading to their hometowns at this time of year, were practically empty. Tokyo Station, a key hub with bullet trains going east and west, for the most part was deserted.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike called on the public to refrain from going out as much as possible for a 12-day period from April 25 until May 6, when the holiday period ends.

“This might be the first day of Golden Week, but a state of emergency is in effect,” said a 35-year-old company employee from Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture.

The man had not planned on going anywhere but received a phone call the previous day saying his father was in critical condition. So he booked a bullet train and was waiting on the platform for the journey to his family home in Mie Prefecture, central Japan.

“I don’t know what everyone at home will say,” said the man, referring to the fact he was coming from Tokyo, which has by far the largest number of confirmed coronavirus infections.

He added that his family had told him to be careful, but he wasn't sure in what context they meant.

A 46-year-old company employee living in Tama, western Tokyo, was heading for a business trip to Nagoya because a client had asked him to come.

“I would not be making this trip without the permission of the client, but I was told to come so I have no option but to go,” the man said.

A 17-year-old student attending a senior high school in Tokyo waited for a bullet train to take her to her family home in Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan.

She said she agonized over whether to make the trip, but decided to do so because many of her friends had returned home. She added that she planned to self-isolate at home once she arrived in Hyogo.

Calls by Koike and other prefectural governors to refrain from traveling during the Golden Week led to a drastic drop in bullet train reservations.

Announcements made April 14 by the Japan Railway companies that operate bullet trains said reservations were only about 10 percent the levels of 2019 for the Golden Week period.

According to officials of East Japan Railway Co. and Central Japan Railway Co., less than 10 percent of non-reserved seats were filled on the morning of April 25 on outbound trains from Tokyo on the Tokaido, Tohoku, Joetsu and Hokuriku bullet train lines.

A visual check of the Tsubasa No. 129 train bound for Yamagata found no passengers.

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