Japan's national, local govts divided on emergency measures

While Japan has declared a state of emergency in seven prefectures, the national government is now locking horns with the affected local municipalities over what constitutes essential services and which businesses should close.

In another dispute, Aichi prefecture, home to the industrial city of Nagoya, declared its own state of emergency yesterday after being left out of the government's declaration.

Aichi has the fifth-most Covid-19 cases and second-highest number of deaths in Japan, but the state did not think the infection rate was fast enough to warrant its inclusion.

There is no legal basis behind its own declaration, but Aichi Governor Hideaki Omura hopes it will invoke a sense of urgency and keep residents home.

But all this hardly bodes well for the authorities, which have pledged to reduce confusion for the public in confusing times, and again epitomises Japan's rigidity and sclerotic bureaucracy.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency until May 6, covering Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka. These areas are home to 56.1 million people, or 44.5 per cent of Japan's population.

The declaration, which does not carry criminal penalties, calls on the public to exercise self-restraint and not go out unnecessarily. Local governments also can ask businesses to close and name and shame those that do not comply.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike wants wider closures beyond those envisioned by the state. "We do not have the luxury of taking our time to make a decision. I want to go ahead with measures in line with the circumstances that we face," Ms Koike reportedly said at a closed-door meeting. She is set to announce Tokyo's measures today.

This comes as Tokyo recorded 181 cases yesterday in a daily high. Osaka also set a new daily record with 92 cases. Nationwide, the number of cases has more than doubled in the span of one week to 5,537 cases as of 10.30pm, a tally by NHK showed.

But Mr Abe also has an eye on the potential devastation of the economy, with predictions of up to a 25 per cent quarterly contraction.

His minister in charge of the Covid-19 response, Mr Yasutoshi Nishimura, had even told local governors to put off any request for businesses to shut by two weeks.

This was reportedly to gauge whether the emergency declaration, by itself, was enough to flatten the curve of infections.

But this appears to be counter-intuitive. If the public is expected to stay home, why is it business as usual for shop owners and workers in non-essential services? Who will they serve, if there are no customers?

Seven in 10 Japanese feel Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's state of emergency declaration on Tuesday came too late. While 72 per cent of respondents agreed with the move, 77 per cent were pessimistic, said the poll by the Mainichi newspaper, released yesterday. They did not believe the state of emergency, which covers Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka prefectures, will be lifted on May 6 as planned.

Mr Abe had implored the Japanese to "voluntarily reduce human interaction by 70 to 80 per cent" in his declaration, which did not impose a citywide shutdown. This led to a drop in footfall of about 30 to 40 per cent in areas such as Shibuya and Osaka.

But when asked if stricter measures were needed, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said: "The government asks for continued cooperation to reduce contact as far as possible."

Larger businesses with deeper pockets have all voluntarily shut, at least in the seven prefectures, but there are concerns that small businesses will not survive despite a 108 trillion yen (S$1.4 trillion) stimulus pledge.

A report by the Teikoku Databank consultancy this week showed 40 companies, mainly in the service sector, have already been bankrupted by the outbreak.

Local governors are asking the state to compensate businesses for losses but, unlike countries like Britain, Japan does not intend to do so above a conditional payout of 1 million yen for independent businesses and 2 million yen for small and medium companies.

It argues it would be too complex a system and would take too much time to create a legal framework.

The stimulus does not go far enough to protect livelihoods, some have argued. "Just flaunting the financial volumes of the stimulus package does nothing to dispel public concerns," the Mainichi daily said in an editorial, noting that the Premier should have mapped out support schemes much earlier.