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Majority believe Japan needs a lockdown law

Sep 18, 2021 (Japan Times) - Amid the coronavirus pandemic, a majority of people in Japan believe it is necessary to create legislation to make a lockdown possible in the country, a recent opinion poll suggested Friday.

Those who said such legislation is necessary accounted for 56.5 % of the survey’s respondents, while 26 % said the opposite.

Meanwhile, the government’s response to the novel coronavirus crisis was rated negatively by 49.5 %, down by 5.7 percentage points from the previous month. Conversely, those rating the response went up by up 5.4 points to reach 31.1 %.

COVID-19 vaccine rollouts in the country were viewed as slow by 61.3 % of respondents — far higher than the 27.1 % who said that inoculations are steadily under way.

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Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako hosted the annual autumn garden party at the Akasaka Imperial Gardens in Tokyo on October 29, welcoming approximately 1,400 guests, including actor Kotaro Yoshida and novelist Miyuki Miyabe, while female members of the Imperial Family attended in traditional Japanese attire.

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