Japan Declares State of Emergency

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Welcome to the World news. World news keeps you updated news around the nations.

Today's topic is "Japan Declares State of Emergency"

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has declared a month-long state of emergency for Tokyo and six other prefectures to protect against the spread of the coronavirus.

However, the move is only a stay-at-home request – not an order – and those who ignore it will not be penalized.

The COVID-19 outbreak is now spreading rapidly, threatening people's health, their daily lives and the economy, Abe said. The state of emergency will last until May 6.

"The most important thing is for each one of us to change our activity," Abe said. He urged everyone to reduce contacts with others by 70-80% for one month.

Abe had been under pressure to declare a state of emergency to get people to better follow social distancing rules as concern increases over the number of cases without any known contact with other patients.

The announcement followed a sudden rise in new cases in Tokyo.

Abe's government is thought to have delayed declaring a state of emergency out of fear for how it might hurt the economy. But as fear of the pandemic has grown, the public and medical experts have increasingly supported taking more drastic action.

The state of emergency includes a stay-at-home request, guidance to schools on temporary closures, and requests to close nonessential businesses and to cancel or postpone events.

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, or $23 billion, leading to a 0.4% drop in Japan's annual GDP.

Abe's government also announced that it will provide 108 trillion yen ($1 trillion) to help protect businesses and jobs.

Earlier, Japan had attempted to reduce infections by closely watching clusters of cases and keeping them under control, rather than doing massive testing as was done in South Korea. That strategy appears to be failing given the sharp rise in cases not linked to previous known infections.

As in many places, there are fears over shortages of hospital beds and critical care units for patients with severe symptoms.

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