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In Japan's capital Tokyo, the number of new corona infections has risen above the 1500 mark for the first time.
Within one day, 1,591 people tested positive for the corona virus, the city administration announced on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga wants to decide on the renewed declaration of a state of emergency for the Tokyo area.
It is expected that it will probably last a month - the preparation for the Olympic Games in summer should continue, Suga said at the beginning of the week.
Japan last declared a state of emergency in Tokyo in April last year, which was later extended to the entire country and lifted again at the end of May.
Recently, however, the number of infections has risen sharply again, especially in the Tokyo area.
Tokyo actually relies on voluntariness
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There is increasing concern about health system overload.
Suga indicated that this time the state of emergency might be more limited and focused than the first.
There has never been a hard lockdown in Japan.
Rather, companies and restaurants were asked to close earlier and citizens were encouraged to work from home if possible.
The requests from the authorities have not yet been legally binding;
So far there are no penalties for non-compliance.
Instead, one relies on voluntariness.
Most of the citizens of the 127-million-inhabitant country wear mouth-and-nose protection.
But shopping areas in the run-up to the New Year holidays and shrines were overcrowded.
Many people continue to use the trams, while others enjoy themselves in bars in Tokyo's nightly amusement areas.