THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
January 8, 2021 at 18:07 JST
Hozenji Yokocho, an alley with restaurants and bars in Osaka’s busy Minami district, on Jan. 6 (Takaharu Yagi)
Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures will ask the central government to declare a state of emergency covering the Keihanshin region as early as on Jan. 9 to deal with the spread of COVID-19.
Osaka officials decided to coordinate the request with the neighboring Kyoto and Hyogo prefectural governments at a meeting of Osaka Prefecture’s COVID-19 task force on Jan. 8. They also decided to ask restaurants and bars in Osaka city to continue to close at 9 p.m. until the state of emergency is issued.
The request is currently effective until Jan. 11.
Once a state of emergency is declared, the targeted businesses will likely be asked to close at 8 p.m.
Residents of Osaka Prefecture will also be asked to refrain from traveling to and from Tokyo and Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba prefectures, which are already under the state of emergency.
Osaka, Aichi and Fukuoka rule out call to request emergency steps
January 5, 2021
Yoshimura rules out state of emergency for Osaka Prefecture
January 4, 2021
Life more or less back to normal in 39 prefectures as people go out
June 15, 2020
Suga: State of emergency for Tokyo area could start on Jan. 7
January 5, 2021
Social distancing efforts fall short of government targets: data
April 15, 2020
Stories about memories of cherry blossoms solicited from readers
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series on the death of a Japanese woman that sparked a debate about criminal justice policy in the United States
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
