In the middle of the fifth corona virus wave, Japan is expanding the virus emergency from six to 13 prefectures.

16 instead of the previous ten prefectures will be subject to stricter anti-corona rules from Friday.

The decision is valid until September 12th and covers the Paralympic Games in Tokyo starting next week.

Patrick Welter

Correspondent for business and politics in Japan, based in Tokyo.

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The government is reacting to the unbroken increase in infections.

Tokyo reported 4,377 new infections on Tuesday, up from nearly 20,000 across the country.

The seven-day incidence in Tokyo reaches almost 230 infected people per 100,000 population.

The number of seriously ill patients is now endangering general health care.

The rules of the virus emergency are comparatively mild.

Above all, they provide for early closing times for restaurants and bars and for not serving alcohol.

For the first time, the government is now recommending that department stores limit the number of customers, especially in underground food departments.

These had increasingly turned out to be sources of infection.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga rejects a hard lockdown, arguing that it was not the lockdowns but the vaccinations that brought about the breakthrough against the virus in the West. Suga is aiming for 80 percent of the population to be vaccinated by October. It is currently around 38 percent.