Japanese urged to stay home for Golden Week as Abe aims to ease emergency rules by early May

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe calls for no travel over the busy Golden Week holiday, as coastal towns see a 60 per cent rise in daytrippers

Japan hopes to end its state of emergency but Hokkaido, its northernmost prefecture, saw a rise in Covid-19 cases after lifting its regulations too soon

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A Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train platform at a Tokyo railway station. Japan has urged people not to travel over the Golden Week holiday, and bullet train trips dropped 85 per cent in the first two weeks of April. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 4:35pm, 24 Apr 2020Updated: 10:15pm, 24 Apr 2020

In the run-up to Japan’s annual Golden Week holiday, which this year begins on May 4, the Niseko Adventure Centre in central Hokkaido should have had at least 1,000 bookings from Japanese and foreign travellers for activities ranging from white water rafting to mountain biking. This year, the centre’s managing director Ross Findlay has no bookings and expects no income, for what is traditionally his busiest time of the year.

In accordance with government recommendations, NAC will be shut until May 6 and, Findlay admits, almost certainly beyond that date.

Japan is three weeks into a quasi-lockdown, with people being urged to stay home and non-critical businesses asked to close to prevent a further spread of the coronavirus, which has so far infected over 12,300 people in Japan, including over 700 aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, and has left 341 dead. One of the latest deaths, of TV host Kumiko Okae, 63, has shocked the nation.

People observe social distancing in front of a supermarket in Tokyo. Photo: Kyodo

“It’s hard, but I’m not going to whine because absolutely everyone is in the same boat and all we can do is hope that they can get this thing under control,” Findlay said.

Tokyo’s goal is to lift the state of emergency in early May and authorities are exhorting people not to venture out during next week’s holiday, which is one of the busiest travel periods in Japan, with workers traditionally taking trips abroad or returning to their hometowns.