Trips to and from Tokyo will be excluded from the government's "Go To Travel" domestic travel subsidy campaign due a recent surge in new coronavirus cases in the capital, but the initiative will be rolled out elsewhere this month as planned, the government said Thursday.
A proposal to exclude Tokyo from the subsidy program was presented to and deemed appropriate by a government panel of experts that has made a number of recommendations to prevent the spread of the virus.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had aimed to launch the nationwide campaign on July 22 as a centerpiece of his policies to rejuvenate the economy following the virus-triggered downturn, but he was forced to review this plan as infections in the Tokyo metropolitan area climbed.
Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Kazuyoshi Akaba met with Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga and Economic Revitalization Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura at the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday afternoon. After the meeting, Akaba said to reporters, "Taking into account the present state of infections, travel to and from Tokyo will be excluded from the program."
Following this decision, trips to the capital and travel by Tokyo residents to other prefectures will not be eligible to receive government subsidies. The travel initiative will start as planned elsewhere from July 22 provided measures to prevent the spread of the virus are taken. The government plans to work out the final details of the subsidies soon.
Accommodation facilities participating in the campaign will be required to take the temperature of every guest and confirm their identity; take measures to prevent the "Three Cs" -- closed spaces with poor ventilation, crowded places, and close-contact settings -- in areas such as communal baths and restaurants; and thoroughly ventilate and disinfect guest rooms and shared spaces.
After discussions with the expert panel, Abe told reporters he wanted to push ahead with the travel campaign.
At a meeting of the panel Thursday evening, experts called for extensive steps to prevent infections from spreading at popular tourist destinations, and for detailing how people could go on trips while avoiding the risk of catching the coronavirus.
"I think the travel promotion campaign should go ahead in regions where infections are not spreading," Shigeru Omi, who heads the panel on coronavirus measures, said at a press conference after the meeting. "Our consensus was that it would be suitable to include Tokyo in the program when infections there have subsided."
The campaign, which will cover part of the costs of domestic travel, was designed to stimulate demand in the tourism industry, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. However, the resurgence in cases in Tokyo has raised concern that the increased movement of people encouraged by the subsidy program could spread the virus to other regions.
Tatsuhiko Kodama, an emeritus professor at the University of Tokyo, indicated Thursday that Japan's capital had become an epicenter for coronavirus infections. "The central government must do everything it can to bring this epicenter under control," Kodama said at a meeting of the House of Councillors Budget Committee. Kodama emphasized the necessity of a stepped-up response, including more polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing.
For a time, the start of the subsidy program looked very likely to be delayed until August, after criticism of the massive cost of outsourcing back-office work to a private contractor prompted a redo of the process. However, the government ultimately decided to launch the program on July 22 -- just in time for a four-day holiday starting the following day.
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