Most areas in Japan to fully reopen Mon. as new infections fall

TOKYO-Thirty-eight of Japan's 47 prefectures are set to fully reopen their economies on Monday as they seek to strike a balance between rebuilding the economies hit by the coronavirus and implementing measures to prevent a second wave of infections.

Schools will also reopen across the country, a week after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe fully lifted the nation's state of emergency declared over the pandemic.

With businesses resuming in stages from early May, a total of 38 prefectures such as Hokkaido, Aichi and Hyogo will lift restrictions on operations of shops and leisure facilities on Monday.

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As Japan lags in coronavirus tests, companies to triple capacity

TOKYO -- Japan's largest diagnostic companies will step up to help the country in its lagging coronavirus testing effort by tripling their combined capacity to roughly 10,000 daily before summer's end.

Japan remains far behind other nations in conducting diagnostic screenings, especially as it hopes to prevent a second wave of infections after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently lifted the state of emergency for the entire country.

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More people visiting Japan's urban areas, data shows

More people visited urban areas Saturday in five prefectures including Tokyo than a week before, as the areas entered the first weekend since the nationwide coronavirus emergency was completely lifted, data has suggested.

The number of people in Tokyo’s posh Ginza district at 3 p.m. was 30.7 percent below the average on weekends and holidays between Jan. 18 and Feb. 14 before COVID-19 cases spiked in Japan, according to the data collected by NTT Docomo Inc.

The rate of decrease shrank by a whopping 30.0 percentage points from a week before, showing recovery in the number of people visiting the major shopping district, the data, collected via the mobile carrier’s base stations, showed.

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