The Cabinet decided Tuesday to use ¥2.17 trillion ($20 billion) in reserve funds for fiscal 2020 to financially support businesses and households suffering from the prolonged impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The funding includes ¥1.54 trillion for local authorities to aid restaurants and bars that comply with requests to close early as part of anti-COVID-19 measures. Municipalities will be able to provide ¥40,000 per day in subsidies to such operators.
The government's second state of emergency, initially declared for the Tokyo metropolitan area in early January but expanded to 11 prefectures within a week, was fully lifted at the end of Sunday after the number of new virus cases fell significantly.