Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a press conference at the prime minister's office in Tokyo on March 3. (Koichi Ueda)

Japan will extend pre-emergency measures for a majority of the 31 prefectures scheduled to see the restrictions end on March 6, including for Hokkaido, Tokyo and Osaka, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on March 3.

He said at a news conference that the government will extend the measures for an additional two weeks, until March 21, for 18 prefectures: Hokkaido, Aomori, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Ishikawa, Gifu, Shizuoka, Aichi, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Kagawa and Kumamoto.

The 13 prefectures for which the pre-emergency measures will expire as scheduled on March 6 are Fukushima, Niigata, Nagano, Mie, Wakayama, Okayama, Hiroshima, Kochi, Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Miyazaki and Kagoshima.

The pre-emergency measures will end in Mie Prefecture on March 6, based on the prefectural government’s request, even though the central government initially intended to extend them.

The central government had decided on Feb. 18 to extend pre-emergency measures for 17 prefectures, including Hokkaido and Osaka, until March 6--the same date the restrictions were scheduled to expire in other prefectures, including Tokyo.

It had made this decision with the hope it could end all the measures across the country at the same time on March 6.

But the daily number of new coronavirus cases is only gradually declining and the occupancy rates of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients remain high. Therefore, it appears that the government had little choice but to extend the measures for many prefectures.

The government will make a formal decision on the measures on March 4.

Related News