TOKYO — Japan is about to step up coronavirus restrictions in three regions that host United States military bases to stem a surge in Covid 19 that some officials have said the bases have helped fuel.
The restrictions, which authorities call priority measures, are being brought back for the first time since September, when Japan lifted emergency controls that had prevailed over the country for most of last year.
In a meeting, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that measures that would allow the restriction of operating hours of restaurants and bars were needed to rein in surging cases.
The infectious omicron variant is found in about 80 percent of Japanese prefectures. There will be more than 5,000 new infections on Friday, according to the Yomiuri newspaper, compared to the average of 200 a day last month.
The health minister Shigeyuki Goto told reporters that we must be prepared for the rapid spread of the disease.
There are cases where there is no history of overseas travel and the route of infection is unknown, while the delta strain continues to spread. The measures will last from Sunday to the end of the month in the southern prefecture of Okinawa and western prefectures of Hiroshima and Yamaguchi.
All three regions have bases for the U.S. military, which on Thursday announced stricter infection controls at Japan s urging after outbreaks at bases appeared to have spilled into communities.
Governors of the prefectures had requested tougher measures after seeing a surge in cases driven by the omicron variant.
In what appears to be the sixth wave of the Pandemic, the southern island chain of Okinawa, host to 70 percent of U.S. military facilities in Japan, has been hardest hit.
The prefecture reported 1,414 new cases on Friday, a record and up from 981 on Thursday.
This number will likely stay high and continue to increase, said the governor of Okinawa, Denny Tamaki, who has criticized infection controls at U.S. bases.
In major metropolitan areas, infections have also been on the rise. Tokyo said it had found 922 new cases on Friday, the most since Sept. 15.
The government of Tokyo is planning to strengthen countermeasures by directing restaurants to limit diners to groups of four, down from eight, according to the Kyodo news agency.
Amid the ongoing frustration with the U.S. bases in Japan, the two countries have to work together on another issue dominating officials: China's growing might.
The comments made by the two allies in a joint statement that followed a virtual meeting of their foreign and defense ministers highlighted how deepening alarm about China and growing tension over Taiwan have put Japan's security role in focus.
According to their statement, the ministers expressed concerns that China s efforts to undermine the rules-based order presented political, economic, military and technological challenges to the region and the world.
They resolved to work together to deter and respond to destabilizing activities in the region, if necessary.
The ministers also stressed the importance of peace and stability in the Xinjiang and Hong Kong regions and said they had serious and ongoing concerns about human rights in China's Xinjiang and Hong Kong regions.
Japan and Australia signed a defense cooperation agreement at a separate virtual summit on Thursday.
China had stern representations with all three countries.
We deplore and firmly oppose the gross interference in China's internal affairs by the US, Japan and Australia and the fabrication of false information to smear China and undermine the solidarity and mutual trust of countries in the region, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a daily briefing in Beijing.
Pacifist Japan has close economic ties to China but is increasingly worried that it could move against democratic Taiwan, which it claims as part of China.
Daniel Russel, who served as top U.S. diplomat for Asia under President Barack Obama, said that this message is a combined message reflecting a common concern, not a case of U.S. arm-twisting to get Japan to sign onto vague euphemisms.
In particular, the expression of joint resolve to respond when necessary to destabilizing activities comes across as a powerful expression of alliance solidarity and determination.