A couple wearing masks hold hands while dining at an izakaya restaurant in Tokyo on Jan. 22, 2021.
Osaka, Japan, has surpassed Tokyo for seven days in a row. To curb the rapidly expanding epidemic in their jurisdiction, the Osaka prefecture and Osaka city government have decided to make it mandatory for restaurant customers to wear masks and other measures for about a month starting today (6), and have sent a “patrol” of about 50 people to inspect about 60,000 restaurants.
Osaka takes control measures again as epidemic rapidly rises
The Central News Agency (CNA) reported that 666 new confirmed cases of the Chinese communist virus disease (2019 coronavirus disease, COVID-19) were reported in Osaka on the 3rd, a record high for a single day since the outbreak last year, and 594 new confirmed cases were reported on the 4th, a record high for new cases announced on Sunday.
Experts are warning that the number of new cases in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures is likely to multiply due to the aggressive arrival of the British variant of the virus.
In such a situation, the Japanese government has announced that the three prefectures of Osaka, Hyogo and Miyagi, where the epidemic is spreading rapidly, will apply “priority measures to prevent the spread of the disease” from today, without issuing a “declaration of emergency”, which will also allow the three prefectures to The prefectural governments are taking focused measures to prevent the epidemic in the areas under their jurisdiction where the epidemic is serious.
Yomiuri TV, the Sankei Shimbun and other Japanese media reported that the “priority measures to prevent the spread of the disease” are permitted to use the mandatory measures of the “Declaration of Emergency” and that stores that do not comply with the Osaka Prefecture’s call or even order will be fined up to 200,000 yen (about US$1,813). The Osaka Prefectural Government and the Osaka City Government will patrol some 60,000 restaurants in Osaka today to check whether they are complying with the relevant regulations.
Osaka Governor Yofumi Yoshimura has asked restaurants to close earlier than 8 p.m. in the coming month and to take measures such as installing acrylic panels inside the restaurants to prevent droplets. Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui explained the “patrol” on the 2nd.
The patrols consisted of 40 to 50 employees from Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City, who went into each store to check if they had complied with the requirements of Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City Government, including asking customers to “wear masks for dinner”, installing acrylic panels, and installing carbon dioxide concentration detection devices to thoroughly ventilate the rooms. and the installation of carbon dioxide detection devices and thorough ventilation in the rooms.
However, the patrol team function, can actually function, it is inevitable that the public doubts, after all, the city of Osaka alone there are about 60,000 restaurants, if each one of them to send officers to check inside, 50 patrol officers to calculate, each day to check 10, it will take 120 days; each day to check 30, it will take 40 days.
A man looks on as a restaurant closes on January 7, 2021, as a state of emergency is declared in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district due to a pandemic of the Chinese Communist virus.
People’s opinions are polarized on wearing masks throughout the meal
A restaurant in the Umeda district of Osaka City posted cautionary notes outside its doors early this morning and refused to let customers in without masks, or asked customers who did not want to cooperate to wear masks inside the restaurant.
The restaurant’s president, Yuichiro Nagase, said that their biggest concern is to have a dispute with customers, and that it is difficult to communicate to customers, and it is impossible to keep an eye on whether they are wearing masks.
Ai Yoshida, a 23-year-old cosmetics salesman who lives in Kita-ku, Osaka, said that if you have to wear a mask throughout the meal, you will have to keep putting on and taking off the mask during the meal, which is very troublesome, “so young people, including me, should avoid eating at restaurants.
However, there are some people who are not optimistic about the effect of the “mask gathering”. Kana Iwasaki, a 38-year-old housewife who lives in Higashinari-ku, Osaka, said that once the epidemic prevention measures were relaxed, it would be difficult to strongly suppress them again, “I think it’s too early to lift the emergency declaration.
Some customers said they were really confused about the difference between the “Declaration of Emergency” and “priority measures such as preventing the spread of the disease,” but that they had to wear masks during meals, “Isn’t that more stringent than the measures taken in the Declaration of Emergency? Isn’t that more stringent than the emergency declaration?”
Kanagawa Governor Yuji Kuroiwa, who has advocated “masked dinners” in the past, said today that Yoshimura’s approach will bring “masked dinners” back to the forefront.
Kuroiwa has been urging people to wear masks when they eat at restaurants last year, “except when they open their mouths to eat.
He said today that the TV station even commented on his suggestion saying “it is impossible to do that”, but even so, “I will continue my advocacy no matter how much ridicule I get”.
People eat at a Japanese soba restaurant after 8 p.m. on Jan. 8, 2021, in a bar alley in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district on the first day of a state of emergency due to the Communist virus pandemic.
Shopkeepers cry foul worrying about impact on business
Some shopkeepers are worried that the business situation may become even tougher as fewer commuters go out after the application of key measures.
The 55-year-old president of a teppanyaki and okonomiyaki restaurant in the Dotonbori area of Osaka City, Masaaki Harada, said that if he posted on social media sites, “Please wear a mask for dinner”, he would be criticized by netizens for “not going to such restaurants” and “not going to such restaurants”. “masks will be stained with oil and sauce” and so on.
Harada said that the placement of acrylic plates is also, the fire department said not to put combustible materials on the table (because it is a teppanyaki), but the result after talking to the Osaka Prefectural Government, the Osaka Prefectural Government officials still insisted that “I also understand this, but please set acrylic plates.
Harada said he hoped the government would listen more to the views of the restaurant scene, “the past year has been in debt to live, and turnover is only about 10% of the past, this time the government’s measures are really too strict”.
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