TOKYO, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on Friday urged against large groups of young people and senior citizens using the state-backed travel subsidy campaign amid concerns over the spread and effects on the elderly of the coronavirus.
The latest restrictions follow Kazuyoshi Akaba announcing the previous day that Tokyo residents and trips to and from the capital would be ineligible for the government's Go To Travel Campaign, set to start on July 22, amid record virus numbers in the capital.
With the campaign set to start next week, Akaba has yet to specify the age groups and numbers of people recommended not to use the campaign, although said that school trips led by teachers would be eligible for the campaign.
The government has said its Go To Travel Campaign, despite concerns over the resurgence of the coronavirus, would start on Wednesday, with the idea being that by subsidizing accommodation and transport fees, more people would be encouraged to take domestic trips.
The Tokyo metropolitan government on Friday reported a fresh record number of daily coronavirus cases at 293 as concerns grow about a second wave of infections taking hold.
The latest record figure followed the previous day's record of 286, underscoring the the metropolitan government's decision to raise its virus alert level to the highest on its four tier scale, confirming that infections are spreading.
Since the nationwide state of emergency was fully lifted on May 25, the capital has seen a resurgence of cases, with neighboring prefectures also seeing COVID-19 cases rise commensurate with Tokyo's.
Nationwide cases the previous day increased to a three-month high at 622 new cases, official figures showed.
Japan's cumulative number of COVID-19 cases rose to 23,657 the previous day, not including those related to a cruise ship that was quarantined in Yokohama near Tokyo earlier this year.
Akaba, while saying it was a "gut-wrenching" decision to remove Tokyo from the campaign, as Tokyo has become "a center of the viral spread," also said the government has no plan to compensate trips cancelled by Tokyo residents or by travelers who had planned to visit the capital.
Japan's top government spokesperson Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, meanwhile, apologized for the decision, but said that Tokyo would be eligible for the campaign when the number of COVID-19 infections drop.
The government's Go To Travel Campaign, however, has been met with resistance from numerous parties.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has spoken out about the plan, suggesting the move could lead to the virus spreading across prefectural lines amid the metropolitan government's efforts to encourage people to refrain from making unnecessary trips across prefectural borders to curb the spread of the virus.
"It is like putting cooling and heating systems on at the same time. I'm not sure how we are supposed to deal with that," Koike has said, amid the city's recent spike in cases and those in prefectures surrounding the capital.
Other local government's along with opposition parties have called on the government to reconsider the launch of its Go To Travel Campaign, suggesting the idea be postponed or its introduction staggered amid the virus' resurgence and due to numerous areas being flooded and hit by landslides following torrential rain hitting wide swathes of the country recently.
Main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan head Yukio Edano has said it is untimely to be promoting tourism at the moment. "We need to stop and rethink it," Edano said. Enditem
