Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s decision to yet again impose a coronavirus state of emergency, effective Monday, centered on a political move to head off criticism from the public rather than a scientific judgment over what would stifle a new wave of the virus.
Although the sense of urgency associated with the emergency may have been diminished by their repeated use — this is the fourth time the measure has been implemented — and business activities will be disrupted, the Suga administration calculated that the political fallout from not declaring it would outweigh the merits of maintaining the status quo, which would have further exposed Suga to intense criticism over perceived inaction.
Tokyo and other areas were under a quasi-state of emergency as of Sunday, and it was believed that the government would continue the measure because many indexes, such as the hospital bed occupancy rate, stood at Stage 3 — not the highest-level Stage 4 that warrants issuing the emergency.