Photo/Illutration Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike holds a video conference with her counterparts from Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba prefectures on Feb. 23. (Yuki Okado)

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has asked the central government to apply pre-emergency measures in the capital to stop a further spread of novel coronavirus infections.

Koike told an April 8 meeting of an experts’ panel set up by the metropolitan government that she would make the request to the central government. She also asked the public to “refrain from outings that involve crossing a prefectural border” as well as to avoid trips to other major urban areas where infections are spreading.

The pre-emergency measures, which will give Koike more authority to ask businesses to close early and to take other precautions, will likely be implemented for the 23 Tokyo wards as well as part of the Tama region in western Tokyo.

The state of emergency for Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures was lifted on March 22, but the Tokyo metropolitan government has continued asking bars and restaurants to close at 9 p.m. until April 21.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Tokyo exceeded 500 on April 7 for the first time in about two months. Osaka Prefecture the same day also confirmed a record 878 new cases.

High-ranking Tokyo metropolitan government officials felt a need to ask for designation for the pre-emergency measures to be able to ask Tokyo residents to refrain as much as possible from making unnecessary trips to the Kansai region.

Many of the new cases in Osaka are believed related to mutant strains of the novel coronavirus. And a large number of business trips are taking place between the greater Tokyo metropolitan area and the Kansai region centered on Osaka.

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