Only 38 percent of public and private schools across Japan managed to begin their new academic year this month with students in classrooms amid the coronavirus epidemic, the education ministry said.
But in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and the four other prefectures placed under a state of emergency by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government last week, the proportion was a mere 6 percent, according to data compiled by the ministry as of Friday.
New school terms typically begin in early April. Even before requesting the public, especially in the seven designated prefectures, to stay home as much as possible, Abe asked elementary, junior high and high schools nationwide to shut for about one month from early March through the end of the spring break.