More people are going out at night in entertainment districts since the state of emergency to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus was lifted in 39 prefectures, according to data from Agoop Corp., a SoftBank Group Corp. tech company.
Increased foot traffic was also seen in Tokyo, Osaka and Hokkaido, where the state of emergency remains in place. This indicates that some are growing fatigued with shelter-in-place policies.
Agoop used smartphone location data to estimate the number of people in areas with a radius of 500 meters. The number of people out during the 7 p.m. hour on Friday was compared to the number out on Thursday, when it was announced that the state of emergency would be lifted in certain places.
In prefectures where it was lifted, foot traffic increased by 10.6% in the area around Sakae Station in Nagoya and by 14.3% around Nakasu-Kawabata Station in Fukuoka.
In Tokyo, where the state of emergency is still in effect, significantly more people were observed in the Kabukicho district of Shinjuku and around Ginza Station, which had seen declining numbers of people since the end of March. Kabukicho saw 12.5% more people and Ginza Station 23% more.
In Osaka, an increases of 20% was observed around Shinsaibashi Station and a 16.3% rise around Kita-Shinchi Station. Foot traffic rose by 13.7% around Susukino Station in Sapporo.
The number of people around Sakae and Shinsaibashi stations has been increasing since May 7, before the states of emergency were lifted.
Nevertheless, in all areas the number of people was down by 50% to 70% compared to the average weekday in May last year.
Moreover, the number of people out at 3 p.m. Saturday was down 72.4% in the Ginza district of Tokyo and 69.1% in the Nanba district of Osaka compared to May last year, according to Mobile Kukan Tokei, a data analysis division of NTT Docomo Inc.
Prof. Tetsuya Matsumoto, an infectious disease expert at the International University of Health and Welfare, said: "In places where the emergency continues, people may be feeling less inclined to refrain from going out. This is expected to increase the risk of infection, which could delay the lifting of the state of emergency."
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