Japan's business leaders have urged the government to abandon its "outdated thinking" and fundamentally reform its Covid-19 inoculation programme.
This comes as the country has become a global laggard in inoculations, and with the Tokyo Olympics less than three months away.
The country is under a state of emergency that began on Sunday and is slated to end on May 11. But this imposes only limited curbs that will keep most shops open.
"There is no firm target for when vaccination of the general population will be completed, and therefore no clear vision on how to balance the prevention of further infection with the resumption of economic activities," said the Japan Association of New Economy (Jane) in its "urgent" proposal.
The document was signed off by two medical doctors, including Kyoto University Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka, and 22 business leaders, including Rakuten chief executive officer Mickey Mikitani and Suntory president Takeshi Niinami.
"The government and local administrations must not be constrained by outdated thinking and must make effective use of private-sector expertise," they said, calling for a coordinated and concerted effort.
The spread of Covid-19 has been relentless in Japan, with the current fourth wave driven by deadlier and more contagious variants.
But the emergency declaration, as well as yesterday's rainy weather, did little to keep people at home, with crowds packing the entertainment districts of Shibuya and Shinjuku in Tokyo.
Key transport hubs, such as Tokyo's Haneda Airport, were also far busier than they were last year. All Nippon Airways said domestic flight bookings jumped 71/2 times this year over the holiday period last year. Train operators said seat reservations for the shinkansen bullet train were 21/2 times that of the holiday period last year.
Tokyo registered 1,027 new Covid-19 cases yesterday, the first time the caseload has exceeded 1,000 since Jan 28. Osaka, the epicentre of the fourth wave, logged 1,171 new cases. At least three prefectures - Aichi, Akita and Ishikawa - also set new highs yesterday.
Yet Japan's inoculation campaign has been sluggish. Cabinet Office figures show that as at Tuesday, just over 3.2 million doses have been administered - with 3.1 million going to healthcare workers and 100,000 to the elderly.
Only 950,000 people - all medical professionals - have received two doses and are fully vaccinated.
This means that out of Japan's overall population of 125.4 million, only 1.8 per cent have received at least their first dose. Just 0.76 per cent are fully vaccinated.
By the Cabinet Office schedule, Japan should have imported enough vials of the Pfizer vaccine for almost 17 million doses by the end of this month. This means that only about one-fifth of the doses have been used.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga promised last week that all seniors who wish to be vaccinated will be fully inoculated by the end of July. But Japan has an elderly population of 36.2 million people, and as the Jane proposal pointed out: "In order to achieve this, some 800,000 vaccines will need to be administered per day."
Japan is currently administering vaccines at an average rate of fewer than 200,000 doses a day.
