Japan

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s prime minister and his deputy won’t attend meetings together to cut coronavirus risks as pressure for a lockdown builds, with domestic cases topping 2,000 and a minister saying the country’s containment strategy was stretched to the limit.

Shinzo Abe told cabinet members on Tuesday that his second-in-command, Taro Aso, would no longer be present at any meeting the prime minister attends, a government spokesman said, in a move to guard leadership against infection that could hamper Japan’s efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

30 March 2020; AFP: The Tokyo Olympics will begin on July 23 next year, organisers said on Monday, after the coronavirus forced the historic decision to postpone the Games until 2021.

The announcement comes less than a week after the organisers were forced to delay the Games under heavy pressure from athletes and sports federations as the global outbreak worsened.

TOKYO, Mar 30 (NNN-NHK) – Japan will step up its efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19, by banning the entry of foreign citizens travelling from the United States, China, South Korea and most of Europe.

Non-Japanese citizens, who have been in any of these areas in the past two weeks, will be barred, the paper said. Tokyo may also ban travel to and from some countries in Southeast Asia and Africa, it said, citing unidentified government sources.

TOKYO (AP) — Before the Olympics were postponed, Japan looked like it had coronavirus infections contained, even as they spread in neighboring countries. Now that the games have been pushed to next year, Tokyo’s cases are spiking, and the city’s governor is requesting that people stay home, even hinting at a possible lockdown.

TOKYO, Mar 29 (NNN-IBNS) – Tokyo 2020 chief, Yoshiro Mori, said that, the new dates for the postponed Olympic Games, could be decided by the end of next week.

The Olympic Games, which will be held in the summer of 2021, at the latest, is most likely to be held between Jun and Sept, Mori said, during a programme, broadcast by Nippon Television.

“I want to offer some conclusions by the end of next week, after we’ve mulled it over,” Mori said.

“The games are meant to be in summer, so we should be thinking of a time between Jun and Sept,” Kyodo News Agency said.

TOKYO, March 28. /TASS/: The organization committee of the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo believes that the international competitions should be held between June and September next year, chief of the committee Yoshiro Mori said Saturday.

"I believe that we should think about the period between June and September. I hope that we can make certain decisions in this regard next week," Kyodo news agency quoted him as saying.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday promised a massive unprecedented package of steps to cushion the economy from the coronavirus pandemic, saying the country was close to a national emergency as infections surged in Tokyo.

Abe told a country that is seeing a rising number of deaths and cases from the outbreak that the “huge, powerful” measures would be greater than the response to the global financial crisis of 2008.

TOKYO, Mar 28 (NNN-NHK) – More than 90 passengers and crew members on a flight to Japan’s Narita airport from Chicago, were given entry to the country without being requested to self-quarantine for 14 days, and not use public transport, the health ministry here said Friday.

The self-quarantine measures, to curb the spread of the virus came into effect for passengers departing from the United States after midnight on Wednesday in Japan.

TOKYO, Mar 26 (NNN-NHK) – Japan will set up a new COVID-19 task force, the government said today, as it warned of a high risk of a widespread of the virus, but the economy minister said, the government was not thinking of declaring a state of emergency now.

Japan had 1,313 domestic cases of COVID_19, as of Thursday morning, separate from 712 from a cruise ship that was moored near Tokyo last month. There have been 45 domestic deaths and 10 from the cruise ship.

Tokyo (AP) --- IOC members, national Olympic committees and athletes were all racing toward the same conclusion Monday: The Tokyo Olympics are not going to take place this summer.

Craig Reedie, a longtime member of the International Olympic Committee, told The Associated Press that everyone can see where things are headed, with the coronavirus pandemic spreading and Olympic hopefuls around the world unable to train.