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00:00What are the expectations and there's already actually criticism as to whether this will be effective. Right. Yes. Well the emergency phase is expected to be declared officially later in the day. The reason behind that is obviously that we're seeing record numbers of infections. We saw 6000 across the country yesterday which is the worst ever in Japan. For the moment it's set to last for a month from January the 8th to February the 7th but it will be a lot less stringent than the last emergency which was declared in April. So this time residents will be urged to avoid going out only after 8 p.m. and bars and restaurants will be instructed to close at that time. There will be another push for remote working and the government is seeking to cut the number of people who commute by about 70 percent. So this kind of emergency light won't have such a devastating effect on the economy. Is this area the government has and one of the Bloomberg economy specialists sees it cutting GDP by about nought point seven percent per month. It's in force. Prime Minister Sugihara insisted on keeping the economy open. Right. He really supported those travel incentives to boost tourism. The tourism industry that's been blamed for really spreading the infections all over Japan. What will all of this do to his political standing. Right. Yes. I mean I think that has certainly in recent weeks been quite a conflict between what the public wants in terms of virus policy and what the government is providing. So in a sense I think it is capitulating to to public opinion which is very much called for stronger measures. And it's not only that the public is putting this opinion forward should get to me who's been a top government adviser on the virus since the start of the pandemic said with these weakened measures a month is not going to be a long enough to bring it under control. And this emergency could have to be extended until March or April which is obviously not particularly desirable. Another expert Hiroshi Nishimura from Kyoto University said also that more drastic steps would be needed to cut the cases significantly. But the thing is that the government is anxious to avoid the kind of economic pain that we saw last year when that triggered actually the worst economic downturn on record.

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Japan to Declare State of Emergency Over Virus Infections

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will be speaking in Japan later and is expected to declare a state of emergency for Tokyo and adjacent areas as coronavirus infections continue to hit record highs. Critics are calling the strategy too narrow and see restrictions lasting for months. Bloomberg’s Isabel Reynolds reports on “Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia.” (Source: Bloomberg)

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