Tokyo on Thursday was included in the Go To Travel campaign, the government-subsidized discounts program to boost domestic tourism, raising concerns about the risk of spreading coronavirus infections to other prefectures.
Local governments were expressing a mixture of hope and unease about the inclusion of Tokyo’s 13.9 million residents in the ¥1.35 trillion campaign, which began in late July for all other prefectures. While Tokyo is a major source of domestic tourism for many areas, it is also the source of about 30 percent of Japan’s nearly 84,000 coronavirus cases as of Thursday.
Tokyo was initially excluded by the government from the July start of the campaign due to concerns that a large influx of Tokyo visitors elsewhere and vice versa could risk increased infections in places outside the capital with limited medical facilities.
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