Photo/Illutration Shigeru Omi, chief of a government COVID-19 task force, responds to reporters in Tokyo on Aug. 5. (Kayoko Geji)

Japan’s top medical adviser said the government and experts will be forced to discuss lockdown legislation if the explosive growth of the new coronavirus cases cannot be curbed.

“We could be forced to discuss even the request for the government to legislate a lockdown, or things like that,” Shigeru Omi, chief of a government COVID-19 task force, told reporters on Aug. 5.

“Even if we declare a state of emergency, it will no longer be as effective as we had hoped,” he said of the current measures against the virus infection.

“In the Kanto region, the infection is spreading faster and faster, putting tremendous strain on the medical care system,” he added. “But our messages are not being fully understood by the people.”

Omi reiterated that it is necessary to expand testing capacity at workplaces, schools and in communities, and to bolster the medical care system.

The National Governors’ Association is asking the government to consider introducing lockdown legislation as a much stronger measure against the pandemic.

But the government has remained reluctant over imposing such a strong policy.

“(Lockdowns) are foreign to Japan,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said.

“If you implement penalties like those of Western countries, or even include arrests, it will be a law that severely restricts private rights,” Health Minister Norihisa Tamura said on Aug. 3 after a Cabinet meeting.

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