Photo/Illutration The shopping street of Tokyo’s Asakusa district is packed with visitors on June 10. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The government will postpone a new tourism-promotion campaign for travel across prefectural borders until the latest wave of novel coronavirus infections subsides, according to sources.

An official decision is expected later this week.

Another travel subsidy program, called “kenmin wari,” which was scheduled to expire on July 14, will be extended until the end of August, the sources said.

Subsidies in the kenmin wari program have been limited to travel by residents within a prefecture.

The new tourism support program that was supposed to start by mid-July would have expanded the kenmin wari setup and covered trips across prefectural borders.

For a package tour, which includes the costs of Shinkansen or plane tickets, the new program would subsidize 40 percent of the travel expenses per traveler, or up to 8,000 yen ($58) per overnight stay.

The subsidies would also provide 3,000 yen in weekday shopping and dining coupons.

The tourism industry, hard hit during the pandemic, has been pressing the government for help.

After the infection situation in Japan seemed to be under control, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced plans to introduce the program before mid-July as long as the number of new COVID-19 cases remained low in June.

But the nationwide daily tally began surging in late June and topped 70,000 on July 12.

Kishida apparently decided it would be difficult to start the new travel discount program while infections are trending upward.

“We will make an appropriate decision by mid-July by assessing the overall infection situation based on the results of (a July 13 meeting of) the health ministry’s advisory panel of experts on the pandemic,” tourism minister Tetsuo Saito said of the new program at a July 12 news conference.

But the infection counts show no signs of subsiding anytime soon.

Shigeru Omi, who heads a government expert panel on the COVID-19 pandemic, indicated on July 11 that Japan has entered a seventh wave of infections.

The resurgence is believed to be fueled by the highly contagious BA.5 Omicron subvariant.

The government could be forced to push back the start of the tourism support program to September or later depending on the infection situation.

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