Taking a page out of a familiar playbook, 13 more prefectures will soon impose restrictions on alcohol sales and business hours as part of quasi-emergency measures, but while the measures against COVID-19 will mostly target restaurants and bars, the rules vary from one prefecture to the next.
Of the prefectures to be under a quasi-emergency from Friday, businesses in Gifu, Nagasaki and Miyazaki prefectures won’t be allowed to serve alcohol during the quasi-emergency period, as was already the case in Hiroshima and Yamaguchi. But 11 other prefectures subject to pre-emergency measures will allow alcohol sales at restaurants with certain conditions, provided the establishment takes the necessary virus precautions as determined by prefectural governments.
Shigeru Omi, chairman of the government’s coronavirus subcommittee, said on Wednesday that the key in the fight against the highly transmissible omicron variant is to limit the number of people gathering in the same place, rather than to outright restrict people’s activities.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.