Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared states of emergency in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures on Friday as the country resorts to contingency measures to contain a fourth wave of the coronavirus.
Japan has passed through two states of emergency and three waves of the pandemic with casualties that pale in comparison to many countries, but the fourth wave — fueled by deadlier, more contagious variants of the virus — could do more harm if the country’s third state of emergency doesn’t embrace lessons learned from past mistakes.
While the first state of emergency encompassed a broad swath of business closure requests, the second was executed more narrowly and took aim at where people eat and drink.