Society

Tokyo to pay more to businesses that remain closed until May 31

May 06 (Japan Today) - The Tokyo metropolitan government said Tuesday it will give more financial aid to small and medium-sized businesses in the capital that agree to its request to suspend operations until the end of this month in an effort to prevent the further spread of the new coronavirus.

The policy for the Japanese capital came a day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe extended a nationwide state of emergency, originally due to expire on Wednesday, through May 31.

The scheme and the size of Tokyo's subsidies will be similar to what had been decided before the extension of the state of emergency, involving payouts of 500,000 yen to business owners with a single shop and 1 million yen to those running multiple outlets. The payouts are set to start from next Monday.

"The next one month will have life-or-death importance," Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike told a press conference on Tuesday.

Koike will propose a draft extra budget to finance the additional support to the capital's ordinary assembly session in June.

The metropolitan government will additionally earmark some 96 billion yen to assist 130,000 businesses, bringing the total of the aid package to 192 billion yen.

The businesses eligible to receive the financial assistance include restaurants, bars and live music venues, which have been asked by the metropolitan government to suspend operations during the period.

Koike again requested residents limit the frequency of grocery shopping to every three days to prevent supermarkets from becoming too crowded and refrain from going outdoors for nonessential purposes.

Koike also asked companies to implement teleworking and flexible commuting hours as much as possible.

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