January 13, 2021 at 17:18 JST
Pedestrians walk in an intersection near JR Shibuya Station on Jan. 9, the first weekend after the second state of emergency declaration was issued. (The Asahi Shimbun)
The cumulative total of novel coronavirus infections confirmed in Japan topped the 300,000 mark on Jan. 13, and the pace is continuing to accelerate.
More than 7,000 new COVID-19 cases have been confirmed daily in January, according to figures from the health ministry and local governments.
The overall tally exceeded 100,000 on Oct. 29, nine and a half months after Japan’s first case was confirmed on Jan. 15, 2020. It took 52 days for the total to surpass 200,000 on Dec. 20.
And in just over three weeks, the figure topped 300,000.
Tokyo accounted for the largest share, with nearly 80,000 cases, followed by about 35,000 in Osaka Prefecture and nearly 30,000 in Kanagawa Prefecture.
The prefectures of Aichi, Saitama, Hokkaido Chiba, Hyogo and Fukuoka all reported more than 10,000 cases.
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