The Japanese government is considering placing Tokyo under a quasi-emergency during the Olympic Games.
A government official said on Monday, as reported by the Japanese news agency Kyodo.
Tokyo, along with other prefectures, is in a state of corona until Sunday, which had previously been extended several times.
The emergency in Japan is not a lockdown: restaurants should stop serving alcohol and close at 8 p.m., as well as department stores and cinemas.
Larger events in culture and sport are allowed again, but with a maximum of 5000 spectators.
The Olympic Games in Japan's capital are to be held from July 23 to August 8 under strict hygiene and corona rules. They had been postponed for a year because of the Corona crisis. At the summit of the major industrialized nations (G7), Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga reaffirmed his determination to hold the games regardless of the pandemic and the widespread opposition among its own people. "We will prepare for safe games in Tokyo and take all measures to prevent the virus from spreading," he said.
Japan's opposition parties want to table a motion of no confidence in Suga's cabinet this Tuesday after the coalition parties refused to extend the current parliamentary term.
Suga has indicated that it will consider early elections in the event that it is held.
They must be held in October at the latest.
Because of the majority of the coalition parties in parliament, a vote of no confidence is not very promising.
Suga has been criticized for his corona policy and his adherence to the Olympic Games.
According to political observers, he hopes that the Olympic Games will go ahead successfully despite the pandemic and that this will give him tailwind for the election as party leader and the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Germany's Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) is not traveling to the Olympic Games in Tokyo. A spokesman for his ministry justified this on Monday in Berlin with the corona pandemic, in which the trip was an "avoidable risk". The head of department Seehofer, who is also responsible for sports, was in quarantine at home for four weeks with a Covid 19 infection and, according to his ministry, has been back in his office in Berlin since the beginning of last week.
The spokesman praised the infection protection precautions of the Japanese authorities. “So you really try to do everything you can to avoid an outbreak of infection there.” It was important to the Ministry of Sports that the athletes and their teams were vaccinated well in advance of the games. The ministry does not have any confirmations for this. "We assume that this will be implemented," emphasized the spokesman.