Japan Lifts State of Emergency for Regions Outside of Tokyo and Osaka, Hokkaido

On May 14, 2020, the Japanese government announced that it has lifted the state of emergency for 39 prefectures, including Aichi, Fukuoka and Ibaraki. Although the largely voluntary restrictive measures under the state of emergency have been lifted with respect to these 39 prefectures, the Japanese government requests that people within these prefectures try to avoid traveling to other prefectures for the remainder of May. The government may re-declare a state of emergency with respect to any of these 39 prefectures depending on the spread of infections within these prefectures.

The largely voluntary measures under the state of emergency (as discussed in our prior blog post) will continue to apply to Tokyo, Osaka, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Hyogo, Kyoto and Hokkaido through the end of May. Each prefectural governor has the discretion to restrict the use of various establishments within their respective prefectures. The Japanese government will reassess whether to lift the state of emergency with respect to any of the remaining eight prefectures on May 21 and may extend the state of emergency longer depending on the spread of infections, among other factors.

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