Photo/Illutration Few pedestrians are seen roaming the streets of the popular Shinbashi entertainment district in Tokyo in mid-December. (Yuji Masuyama)

Bars and restaurants that comply with requests from prefectural governors to shorten business hours are eligible for a subsidy boost to 60,000 yen ($580) a day, according to government sources.

That amounts to an increase of 20,000 yen from the current amount.

In exchange for the larger daily amounts paid out to the cooperating establishments, separate payment programs to help small businesses survive the pandemic scare and subsidize rents will stop accepting applications on Jan. 15.

The names of any bars and restaurants that do not cooperate by shortening their business hours will be publicly disclosed, sources said.

The government has been preparing for days to declare a state of emergency over the novel coronavirus pandemic. This is the latest and perhaps one of the last policy details to emerge from the process before the declaration.

Most of the other details emerged over the past few days, including that the state of emergency will cover Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures, and that it will start from Jan. 8 and last for about a month until Feb. 7.

A government panel of experts will meet on Jan. 7 before officials formally decide on declaring a state of emergency.

Bars and restaurants will be asked to shutter at 8 p.m. and stop serving alcohol at 7 p.m. Theaters and amusement parks that attract large crowds will also be asked to close at 8 p.m.

The four prefectures’ governors are asking their residents to refrain from unnecessary outings after 8 p.m.

Event restrictions will also be tightened, with venues only able to allow in half the capacity of seats, up to a maximum of 5,000 people, to prevent large crowds from forming.

However, schools, kindergartens and day care centers will remain open.

One condition for lifting the state of emergency is easing the burden on hospitals. That means reducing the number of hospital beds needed for COVID-19 patients as well as the number of new cases to a level equivalent to stage 3 of the government’s four-stage pandemic alert level. Stage 3 is still the second-highest stage on the scale.

If the situation does not appear to be improving and headed toward stage 3, the government will ask its experts for their analysis and then decide on whether to extend the state of emergency.

The last time the government tried to rein in the spread of the novel coronavirus by declaring a state of emergency under the special measures law was in April 2020. No official change has yet been made to the basic package of measures aimed at preventing the spread of infections since May 2020, when the first state of emergency was lifted.

In terms of the process, an advisory panel will be asked to consent to the changes to the basic measures to be implemented before a new state of emergency is declared. Once approved, a report will be submitted to the Diet before a government task force formally approves the state of emergency.

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