Amid the state of emergency extension called by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the two government masks being sent to each household to fend off the coronavirus have only arrived in Tokyo.
Delivery to the rest of Japan is scheduled to be completed by the end of the month — when the extension is set to end.
Around 5.6 million of the so-called Abenomasks had been distributed in the capital as of Wednesday under the ¥46.6 billion plan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Friday. The derisive term is a pun on Abenomics, the prime minister's economic policy.