Calls for Japan lockdown as Tokyo cases at 'disaster level'

TOKYO • As Japan struggles with its worst-yet wave of coronavirus cases, calls for the kind of mandatory lockdown seen in other parts of the world have emerged in a country that has so far shunned such harsh measures.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike warned yesterday that the situation in the capital was at "disaster level" as cases jumped to a record 5,773, more than quadrupling in just three weeks.

Earlier, virus experts called the situation "out of control" in an analysis presented to the metropolitan government.

Regional governors and a senior member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have also called on the central government to consider clamping down harder. Those calls have so far been rejected by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who faces a general election in the next three months, with his support at record lows.

It is unclear how voters would react to a lockdown, given the blow already felt by businesses from the spread of the Delta variant and the light-touch restrictions currently in place.

While some countries were quick to restrict individual freedoms in a bid to rein in Covid-19 last year, Japan has relied on asking people to refrain from going out unnecessarily. There are no penalties for disobedience, and no enforcement. The soft approach, reflecting a deep-seated aversion to the authoritarianism before and during World War II, was until recently fairly effective.

The death toll in Japan is about 15,000, compared with 130,000 in the United Kingdom, which has half of Japan's population. About a million infections have been recorded in Japan, compared with more than six million in the UK.

"States of emergency are gradually beginning to lose their effectiveness," LDP policy chief Hakubun Shimomura told a BS Fuji TV programme on Aug 4. "I think we should talk about stay-home orders."

BLOOMBERG