Thread by @patio11

Japan has declared a state of national emergency covering Tokyo, Osaka, and five other prefectures close to them.

www3.nhk.or.jp/news/special/c…

or

japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/04/0…

At present this explicitly does not include a "lockdown such as we have seen in countries abroad."

I would recommend you not make plans which are contingent on that state of affairs continuing.

"What's the biggest change we're likely to see?"

Every public and private org in Japan will have a conversation tomorrow, and in lamentably many cases for *the first time* tomorrow, on what their coronavirus strategy should be. Some will act; some will start planning to act.

"Every" is a bit of an overstatement for effect here, but as of tomorrow it's hard to imagine e.g. a large corporation or city not having several hundred people working on this issue.

That is, unfortunately, not terribly hard to imagine as of last week or even this morning.

The press conference includes the first time I've heard the acknowledgement from on high (in Japanese) that asymptomatic people can be infectious, which is one of the most important facts for the public health response and which will likely surprise a lot of decisionmakers.

Request from the government to avoid moving from Tokyo/Osaka/etc ("as we've seen abroad during lockdowns") to regions of Japan because a) risk in Tokyo/Osaka/etc "if living life as normal" is low and b) high at-risk population in the regions.

(Both quotes approximate.)

Government clarifies that while compliance with government requests to avoid e.g. operating businesses considered at high risk to spread coronavirus is at the discretion of the business owner, that request could be made directly, by police, in the course of their official duties.

I will note for the benefit of Japanese speakers searching the transcript that the word 職務質問 was used by the questioner, and think your friendly neighborhood legal professional can explain why that is an important word choice.