Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's decision to launch a review of the Go To campaign for stimulating economic demand stemmed from the realization that some revision is essential as anxiety grows around the nation with the surge in coronavirus infections.
The prime minister has not changed his stance that the campaign is a pillar of his agenda for rebuilding the nation's economy, and thus seeks to continue the program in areas where infections are not increasing.
"We will quickly carry out what can be done as the government," Suga emphasized to reporters after a meeting of the government's coronavirus task force on Saturday. "The primary duty of the government is to protect the lives and livelihoods of the citizens."
Suga added, "A supercomputer has proven masks are effective. I earnestly plead that masks be worn, including occasions of dining in groups."
Among the programs implemented by the government so far, the Go To Eat campaign -- aimed at assisting eating and drinking establishments -- has been deemed to be high risk because it led to clusters from group dining.
As such, on Nov. 19, the government requested that prefectural governors limit campaign coupon users to no more than groups of four in principle, and encouraged mask-wearing even during group dining.
On the other hand, Suga had deemed it unnecessary to review the Go To Travel campaign for assisting the tourism industry in regard to containing the pandemic, given that only 176 out of about 40 million people who used the program were confirmed to have contracted the virus.
In fact, while suggesting a review of the program, experts on the government's coronavirus science subcommittee noted in its recommendations on Nov. 20 that "at the current time, there is no evidence that travel business is a major cause of the surge in infections."
The Go To Travel program was enacted in July last year under the initiative of Suga, who was the chief Cabinet secretary, but had its share of opposing voices.
Suga has a strong attachment to the program, as he has told aides that it is "the largest engine for resuming social and economic activities."
Even so, Suga was forced to put the program under review because of apprehension within the government. "As the public anxiety spreads over rising infections, continuing the program as is could lead to innuendo that the travel campaign is a super-spreader of infections," an aide said.
Opposition parties also taking aim at the Go To Travel program supported by Suga, and will likely pressure Suga during intensive budget committee deliberations in both houses scheduled for Nov. 25.
However, talk among the ruling parties has emerged of swallowing a bitter pill. "If it is going to be reconsidered anyway, it would have been more effective to do it before the three-day weekend," a former Cabinet minister said.
For the current reviews, the government plans to consult with prefectural governors regarding the pandemic circumstances and determine whether or not to suspend the program based on requests from the governors.
Each program has been a driving force in the revitalization of local economies, and so it seems that the government can assume there will be few governors seeking suspensions.
The Go To Travel program is slated to expire at the end of January next year, but a senior government official said, "The basic policy to extend it has not changed."
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
