Nobody knows the actual number of coronavirus cases in Japan , cautioned an expert on a Japanese government panel on Monday, amid growing criticism of the government for a lack of testing. “It is certain that the actual number of cases is higher than reported. But nobody knows whether that could be 10 times, 12 times or 20 times more than reported,” Shigeru Omi, who leads a government panel of experts, told an upper house budget committee. Japan had confirmed more than 16,500 coronavirus cases as of Sunday, including 712 on a cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo in February. There have also been nearly 650 deaths. However, critics say the actual number could be as much as 10 times higher, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government criticised for intentionally limiting coronavirus testing. Critics argued the government had been eager to press ahead with the Tokyo Olympics at the expense of testing. But, in the end, the International Olympic Committee and Japan agreed on March 24 to postpone the Games until next year. Opposition lawmakers and experts have repeatedly urged the government to ramp up testing capabilities. Japanese decry old-school tech as hospitals file Covid-19 cases by fax Constitutional Democratic Party secretary general Tetsuro Fukuyama told the committee that the number of those who sought consultation had surpassed 1 million, but that less than 60,000 coronavirus tests had been conducted. Japan has performed only 1.68 tests per 1,000 people, compared with South Korea’s 12.95, Germany’s 32.89 and New Zealand’s 39.47, according to Our World in Data, a research team at the University of Oxford. During the weekend, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare finally removed a requirement that a person should have a temperature of 37.5 degrees or higher for four days in a row to receive a test. Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said on Friday that requirement was “misunderstood”. From Hong Kong to UK, governments ranked poorly for response to Covid-19 His comment sparked public anger as critics said Health Ministry bureaucrats did not want to acknowledge their failure. Last week, Abe extended the nationwide state of emergency until the end of May. The country is still seeing hundreds of new infection cases daily. The government will decide on Thursday whether to partially lift the emergency, Abe said. But his government still did not discuss how many tests Japan needs in order to loosen the restrictions.