THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
June 19, 2020 at 16:37 JST
Passengers decked out in face masks board a Shinkansen bullet train at JR Tokyo Station on June 19. (Naoko Kawamura)
The government on June 19 lifted its last restrictions on travel across prefectural borders to help kick-start economic and social activity that ground to a halt as the nation grappled with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced the move June 18 at a news conference held at the prime minister's office in Tokyo.
“We will get the economy running again while taking every precaution against a further rise in infections,” Abe said.
With travel restrictions eased, the government moves to the next step of its road map to resume economic and social activity that was unveiled upon the May 25 lifting of a state of emergency for all 47 prefectures.
The government maintains the outbreak has been largely brought under control.
Since June 1, people have been able to cross prefectural borders with the exception of the main northernmost island of Hokkaido as well as Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa, which were the last to be freed from the restrictions.
The government asked the public to carefully consider traveling to and from those five areas unless absolutely necessary.
By lifting the travel curbs, the government will allow tourism operators to resume luring customers from other prefectures and ease restrictions on staging events.
Organizers can hold exhibitions, concerts and other events with a capacity for up to 1,000 people. They can also host large-scale events, such as professional sports activities that involve travel across prefectural borders without spectators.
All business closure requests by governors will also be lifted, in principle. Host and hostess clubs, bars and other similar establishments, as well as live music houses, will also be allowed to reopen as long as they comply with guidelines created by respective industry organizations and other conditions.
(This article was written by Ayako Nakada and Tomohiro Yamamoto.)
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