Apr 09 (Japan Today) - Japanese governors urged the state on Wednesday to compensate businesses so they can comply with requests to halt operations and cancel events in order to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, but the central government rejected the call.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and six prefectures including Osaka. Under the declaration effective through May 6, the governors can request businesses to halt operations.
The governors held an online meeting and compiled proposals for state compensation for businesses.
But Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the top spokesman for the central government, said at a press conference it does not plan to introduce such a measure.
Yasutoshi Nishimura, economic and fiscal policy minister who oversees special measures to respond to the epidemic, held a videoconference call with the governors later in the day and asked them to refrain from asking businesses to close over the next two weeks, sources close to the mater said.
Nishimura told the governors that the government wants to spend the period determining if Abe's emergency declaration, which strongly urged people to stay indoors, is effective in curbing infections, the sources said.
Roughly 56 million people, or about 45 percent of the country's population, in Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama, Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka are subject to the emergency declaration, which calls for people to refrain from nonessential outings and some businesses to shut. There are no legal penalties for noncompliance.
