Recent remarks by Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura faulting the central government over its pace in drafting specific guidelines for the lifting of business closure requests have sparked criticism from the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Osaka became the first prefecture to issue such guidance on Tuesday when it announced its own detailed plan for determining whether to relax or lift closure requests on local businesses.
“A clear exit strategy on how to lift the requests for closing businesses is needed. As the central government has not indicated anything, we decided on this 'Osaka model,'” Yoshimura told reporters.