Tokyo orders 27 facilities to cut business hours

Tokyo has ordered the operators of 27 dining establishments to cut their business hours. This is Japan's first such directive issued under revised legislation for coronavirus special measures. Such a legally enforceable directive can be applied only under the state of emergency. The ongoing state of emergency expires on Sunday.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government imposed the order on the businesses on Thursday.

Any operator that defies the order can be fined up to the equivalent of about 2,800 dollars.

The Tokyo government decided that all 27 had failed to submit justifiable reasons for continuing their operations past 8 p.m. It has been asking dining establishments and other businesses to close by that hour as part of measures to prevent infection.

The revised legislation empowers local governments to make public the names and addresses of premises ordered to limit their business hours.

However, the Tokyo government has not disclosed any such information on the 27 subject to the order. Authorities cited the possibility that doing so could help lure people to them. They had earlier used the law to insist that the operators of 113 establishments close by 8 p.m.

Source: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20210319_01/