Aerial view of Tokyo. (Image via Culture Trip)

Nishimura: The travel subsidy revocation is not late

On Wednesday, Japan's Economic Revitalization Minister and also in charge of Japan's response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, Yasutoshi Nishimura, stood by the Japanese Government's revocation of the travel subsidy program for New Year holidays, denying that it was too late amid the spike in the COVID-19 pandemic.

During an out-of-session committee meeting of the House of Representatives, Nishimura also stated that halting the "Go To Travel" program, a campaign by the Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, to promote domestic tourism and to accelerate Japan's economic recovery from 28 December to 11 January, as a bold and painful decision. Nishimura said that the suspension of the program is best timed in order to reduce COVID-19 transmission.

The Japanese health experts urged the Japanese Government to suspend the "Go To" subsidy program for the regions where COVID-19 rose steadily. Previously, the Japanese Government already stopped the "Go To" program for Osaka and Sapporo in November. Just Monday, Suga suspended it nationwide amid the 3,000 daily fresh COVID-19 infection record.

With Nishimura, a lawmaker from the opposition party Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), Kensuke Onishi, criticized the Japanese Government's tardiness in suspending the program. Supporting Onishi's state, Masato Imai, also a member of CDPJ, stated that the suspension should have been done earlier.

Regarding the legislation to compensate businesses asked to temporarily close, Nishimura is still trying to improve the effectiveness of the legal framework to also tackle the COVID-19, promising a speedy process.

Source: https://bit.ly/3p3GzpN