Here are the latest updates from Japan and beyond on the coronavirus outbreak:
Photo taken on July 10, 2021, shows Tokyo's Asakusa sightseeing area and Tokyo Skytree (background) just days after the Japanese government decided to place the capital under a fresh COVID-19 state of emergency for the duration of the Olympics. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
As of 10 p.m., Sunday, July 11
- Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's government is set to put Tokyo under what will be its fourth COVID-19 state of emergency from Monday to Aug. 22, a period that will cover the duration of the Olympics, in an effort to curb a resurgence in coronavirus infections.
- Masters Tournament champion Hideki Matsuyama will miss the Open Championship later this month in Sandwich, England, as he continues to battle COVID-19 infection, his management said Sunday.
- North Korea's unwavering determination not to open its border with China to ward off the intrusion of the novel coronavirus has been fanning fears that the nuclear-armed country's citizens cannot receive food in satisfying quantities or vaccination anytime soon.
- Japan will start accepting applications for so-called vaccine passports from July 26 for people who have been fully inoculated against COVID-19 to travel internationally, the top government spokesman said Sunday.
- Nearly 30 percent of respondents in a private-sector survey said their summer bonuses fell from last year, indicating that more Japanese people are feeling the pinch of the coronavirus pandemic hurting corporate earnings.
As of 11 p.m., Saturday, July 10
- Some 75 percent of people aged 65 and over in Japan have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, with most of them set to be fully vaccinated by the end of July, a government tally showed Saturday.
- Tokyo Olympics' softball and baseball games scheduled at Fukushima Azuma stadium will be held behind closed doors, Fukushima Prefectural Gov. Masao Uchibori said Saturday.
- A Lithuanian Olympic swimmer suspected of being infected with coronavirus has been confirmed negative following the last of a series of tests on Saturday, according to the city hosting the Lithuanian delegation to the Tokyo Games.
- A total of 80.5 percent of university seniors in Japan who are scheduled to graduate next March have secured job offers as of July 1, an improvement from last year when job-hunting was affected by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey.
- The finance chiefs of the Group of 20 major economies gathered Friday in Italy for two-day talks to address an increasingly uneven economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and to push for plans that would keep multinational companies from evading taxes by shifting their profits overseas.
- Tokyo Olympic organizers said late Friday they have reversed their earlier decision to allow up to 10,000 spectators at daytime events on Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido, a day after deciding to stage the games behind closed doors at almost all venues due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in the Tokyo area.
- The government will ask duty-free stores to check the date of entry to Japan in customers' passports and report if they were shopping in violation of the required 14-day quarantine period, sources close to the matter said Friday.
Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - July 3~9
People look at a flame-lighting ceremony for the Tokyo Olympics in Hachioji, western Tokyo, on July 10, 2021, as the torch relay on public roads was canceled across most of Tokyo due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Useful resources for foreign residents and visitors in Japan
- Tokyo Metropolitan Government's "Tokyo Coronavirus Support Center for Foreign Residents (TOCOS)" multilingual hotline
- Available in Simple Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Nepali, Indonesian, Tagalog, Thai, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Khmer, and Burmese, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays except national holidays.
0120-296-004 (toll free)
https://www.seikatubunka.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/chiiki_tabunka/tabunka/tabunkasuishin/0000001452.html - AMDA Medical Information Center's "Multilingual Consultation Service"
- Available in Simple Japanese and English, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. Also available in Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese on designated weekdays. Check schedule here.
03-6233-9266 - Tokyo Metropolitan Government's COVID-19 info
https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en/ - Tokyo Metropolitan Government hotline
https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en/contacts
- Available in English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. (including weekends and holidays)
0570-550571
- Available via fax for those with hearing impairments
03-5388-1396 - Japan National Tourism Organization's "Guide for when you are feeling ill"
- Multilingual clinic/hospital search available in English, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese
https://www.jnto.go.jp/emergency/eng/mi_guide.html - JNTO's "Japan Visitor Hotline"
https://www.japan.travel/en/plan/hotline/
- Available in English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese 24 hours a day
050-3816-2787
+81-50-3816-2787 (from overseas) - Japan's health ministry hotline
- Available in Japanese only, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
0120-565653 - World Health Organization's "Q&A on coronaviruses"
https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses
