- The total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Japan stood at 13,736 on Wednesday 29 April, health officials said, with a total of 394 people who lost their lives as a result of the disease. Daily cases of COVID-19 in Tokyo have topped 100 people recently. There were 47 new cases reported in Tokyo on Wednesday, bringing the total number of infections in the capital to 4,106.
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- Japan will soon provide 38 countries with Fujifilm’s anti-flu drug Avigan, which is seen as a potential treatment for COVID-19.Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu says the countries, which include the Netherlands, the Philippines and Malaysia, will receive the anti-flu drug that was developed by a group firm of Fujifilm Holdings Corp.
He said they are among more than 70 countries that have requested a supply of Avigan that the Japanese government has offered to provide for free. Motegi said recipient countries will send clinical trial data to Japan.
He stressed that it’s crucial to develop curative drugs to contain the pandemic. He said he will push ahead with public-private partnerships and international cooperation to promote development of medicines to treat the virus.
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- On Wednesday 29 April, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe suggested his government may consider a proposal to introduce a school year starting in September, in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic in Japan.“I would like to study various options at a time when our country faces major changes” amid the virus crisis, he said at a meeting of the Lower House Budget Committee in response to Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the major opposition Democratic Party for the People.At the same time he said, “Some people are cautious about the September enrollment system, arguing that it would have major impacts (on society), and I’m fully aware of such opinions.”
Abe’s remarks came after education minister Koichi Hagiuda said on Tuesday that September enrollment is an option. Ruling coalition officials are cautious about an opposition party proposal to delay the start of the school year, normally in April, to September amid school closures due to the coronavirus outbreak.
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- Japan’s health ministry has allowed dentists to carry out coronavirus tests when physicians and other qualified healthcare staff are unavailable.The ministry notified local governments that they can have dentists conduct PCR tests at local coronavirus testing centers as a special measure.
Dentists, who do not have physician’s licenses, are to be required to take relevant training, including that for collecting samples from patients’ noses and throats, before going on duty. Patients’ consent is also required.
Up to about 8,800 PCR tests were carried out per day in Japan in mid-April. The figure is about four times the number from a month earlier, and is likely to rise.
The ministry says some local governments have already asked about the approval of the scheme. Expert panels under local governments and medical associations are expected to discuss the need for the measure and how to implement it.
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- Osaka Prefecture announced on Monday 27 April it will name and shame more pachinko parlors that are defying coronavirus closure requests after three out of six locations it identified on Friday subsequently closed. This marked the first such move under Japan’s state of emergency declaration.”A lot of places have closed down after we named the six last week. We are now conducting a survey of pachinko parlors and will announce the results accordingly,” a spokesman for Osaka Prefecture said.
The continued operation of some noisy gambling halls is a conspicuous reminder of the limits of Japanese government’s ability to lock down cities with requests rather than orders backed up with fines.
Japan has shied away from stronger enforcement steps in part because of memories of civil rights abuses during World War Two, and protection of such rights are enshrined in Japan’s U.S.-drafted post-war constitution.
Pachinko parlors, where players sit back-to-back at long rows of machines with bouncing steel balls and garish lights, are a common sight in Japan and easy for health officials to identify.
“They are big, and we know were they are. When it comes to bars and restaurants that are still operating, however, finding them is more difficult,” said the Osaka Prefecture spokesman.
Osaka’s methods were followed by Hyogo Prefecture, with other prefectures now also taking similar name-and-shame measures.
In Tokyo, as of Sunday 26 April, 156 out of roughly 600 pachinko parlors still remained open, but the number dropped to 22 on Monday, with all agreeing to comply on Tuesday, after 60 metropolitan government officials in 15 teams directly visited noncompliant businesses and requested they close, said Governor Yuriko Koike.
But after media investigations revealed some parlors were still open as of Tuesday afternoon, the metropolitan government amended its statement.
The city will deliver a written closure request to those businesses and is expected to publicize the names of those who are noncompliant after Wednesday.
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- The number of people in Japan who became unemployed due to the coronavirus outbreak has surged to over 3,000. Japan’s labor ministry says 3,391 people nationwide lost their jobs, or were expected to, from the end of January through Monday. More than 2,000 did so in the past month.As many as 12,395 companies have fired or laid off workers, or are considering taking such measures. Many are tourism and hotel businesses, which have been hit hard by decreasing numbers of foreign and domestic travelers.
Another 249 companies fired more than 30 employees from January to March for financial reasons, for a total of 9,620 lost jobs.
The firms include 113 manufacturers, 54 wholesalers and retailers, 16 hotels and restaurants and 15 medical care and welfare service firms.
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