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A vote will be held in Japan's lower house of parliament on March 12 for the passage of special legislation, which enables the government to make better provisions during the COVID-19 outbreak and declare a state of emergency if necessary, ruling and opposition parties agreed Thursday.
The law to be effective for a period of up to two years will be a revision of the existing law on novel influenza. It will be valid until February 2022 as COVID-19 was officially classified as a designated infectious disease in Japan in February.
After Cabinet approval on Tuesday, the bill would be an almost certain scenario as the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition has a majority in the more powerful lower chamber. The bill will be approved by the upper house on March 13, according to the coalition's plans.
Under the newly amended law, the government would have extended powers through regional governments once a state of emergency has been declared. Particular parts of the country would be able to require people to stay at home, issue closures to schools and restrict the use of locations that facilitate large groups of people gathering amid the virus outbreak.
The government will also be empowered to require that medicine and other goods necessary to tackle the virus be sold at lower prices or requisitioned. The move could hopefully tackle a shortage of surgical masks in the country and stop consumers hoarding and panic buying masks, disinfectant spays and hand sanitizers, as well as curb the reselling of these items online at exorbitant prices.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the new bill will serve as a preemptive, preparatory measure for a "worst-case scenario."
Abe, thus, has intimated that once the law is enacted, he will not necessarily declare a state of emergency immediately, but will have the power to do so if required.
In such an event, the Japanese leader has said he will liaise with the opposition camp in making the decision as individual rights could be limited under the new law.
As of Wednesday, confirmed cases of coronavirus infections topped 1,000 in Japan and have been reported in 28 of the country's 47 prefectures, according to health ministry officials and local authorities, with the death toll standing at 12.
"We are not in a situation that infections have spread across the country," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference on the matter, although some of the hardest-hit regions such as Hokkaido, which declared a state of emergency on Friday, along with Aichi, Tokyo, Kanagawa and Chiba Prefecture have reported "clusters" of infections in their localities, health ministry officials have said.
With schools across the nation officially closed from Monday, the government canceled a number of its large events and encouraged other events of scale to do so. The Japanese government also called on businesses, where possible, to allow employees to work from home or work staggered hours, adding that the next two weeks will be essential in containing COVID-19.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
