Japan PM Shinzo Abe Declares State of Emergency Over Coronavirus

Pressure increased on the government to take fresh action as Tokyo announced a record 148 new cases on Sunday.

Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

(Photo: AP)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a month-long state of emergency for Tokyo and six other prefectures on Tuesday, 7 April, to ramp up defenses against the spread of the coronavirus as the number of infections surges.

But the move came in the form of a stay-at-home request — not an order — and violators will not be penalised.

The state of emergency, which is until 6 May, will only permit Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike and heads of the six other prefectures to do more to reinforce calls for social distancing.

Abe urged everyone to cut contacts with others by 70-80 percent for one month, calling the coronavirus pandemic “the biggest postwar crisis.”

The announcement follows surges in new cases in Tokyo, including consecutive rises exceeding 100 over the weekend. By Tuesday, there were 1,196 confirmed cases in the metropolitan region of 14 million people.

Nationwide, Japan has reported 91 deaths from COVID-19 and 3,906 confirmed cases, plus another 712 cases and 11 fatalities from a cruise ship that was quarantined earlier at Yokohama port near Tokyo.

Abe has been under pressure to declare a state of emergency to get better compliance with calls for social distancing amid rising alarm over the number of cases without any known contact with other patients.

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike welcomed the emergency measures, saying she expects they “will prevail widely and deeply among the people." She said her immediate request under the state of emergency is “stay home."

Takahide Kiuchi, an economist at Nomura Research Institute, said in a recent report that a state of emergency could cause consumer spending to fall nearly 2.5 trillion yen ($23 billion), leading to a 0.4 percent drop in Japan's annual GDP.

Abe's government also announced a 108 trillion yen ($1 trillion) stimulus package to help the country to survive the economic downturn and to protect businesses and jobs.

The government overcame controversy over risks to civil rights to gain approval of a special law last month enabling Abe to declare a state of emergency.

Earlier, Japan sought to curb infections by closely monitoring clusters of cases and keeping them under control, rather than conducting massive testing as was done in neighboring South Korea. That strategy appears to be failing given the sharp rise in cases not linked to previous known infections.

As is true in many places, there are fears over shortages of beds and ICU units for patients with severe symptoms.

A day prior to the announcement, Prime Minister Abe had said the government plans to declare a state of emergency and proposed a stimulus package worth USD 1 trillion as new coronavirus infections spike in Tokyo and elsewhere.

“We hope to declare a state of emergency as early as tomorrow after listening to the opinions of the advisory panel. We’re currently seeing rapid increases of new infections particularly in urban areas like Tokyo and Osaka,”

Shinzo Abe, Japanese Prime Minister

"Considering that medical institutions are facing a critical situation, I have received opinions that the government should prepare to declare a state of emergency," Abe said.

(With inputs from AP and AFP.)