The government has decided to use youth education centers as temporary housing for Japanese students and others returning from overseas, as part of efforts to cope with the spread of the new coronavirus, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
In response to the pandemic, the government is asking all foreigners and Japanese nationals visiting or returning to Japan from abroad to stay in their homes or designated facilities for 14 days. It also urges them not to use public transportation.
Students whose homes are located far from big cities are expected to be stranded near airports after entering the country, so the government will prepare youth education centers for them to stay in temporarily.
The government plans to allocate about 1.2 billion yen in the fiscal 2020 supplementary budget for the emergency economic package to renovate those facilities. It plans to start refurbishing the facilities after the budget is approved, in the hope of starting to house people there as early as this summer.
Four facilities that will accept returnees are: the National Olympics Memorial Youth Center in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo; the National Chuo Youth Friendship Center in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture; the National Awaji Youth Friendship Center in Minami-Awaji, Hyogo Prefecture; and the National Yasukogen Youth Outdoor Learning Center in Chikuzen, Fukuoka Prefecture.
The facilities normally provide accommodations for school camps but are hardly being used at the moment due to school closures resulting from the spread of the virus.
About 1.2 billion yen in the supplementary budget will be used for making partitions to secure about 370 private rooms as well as bathrooms.
According to the Foreign Ministry, about 1,300 Japanese nationals wanted to return to Japan from about 60 countries as of Friday. On Saturday, about 300 people were to leave Africa, and another 300 were to leave for Japan by the end of this month.
The number of returnees is expected to further increase, and the government is preparing to accept more people.
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