Japan's state of emergency may be lifted for most prefectures

A final decision will be made based on opinions from an expert panel scheduled to meet Thursday. The government is also considering a similar move for some of the 13 other prefectures, which are currently urged to be on special alert, depending on how many cases are reported there, the sources said.

Many of the 34 prefectures have had no new reported cases in recent days, leading the government to believe that local medical services are no longer on the verge of collapsing.

The government expanded the declaration to cover all the nation's 47 prefectures, with the aim of discouraging people from traveling during the Golden Week holidays. Now that period is over, the government believes it is no longer meaningful to keep the 34 prefectures under a state of emergency.

The declaration also may be lifted for some of the 13 prefectures on special alert because they have had no new reported cases in recent days. The government will make a final decision based on the number of cases reported from Monday to Wednesday.

However, Tokyo and Osaka Prefecture still have a large daily number of cases, although their figures are getting smaller. Given this trend, the government believes it is still too early to lift the declaration of a state of emergency in these areas.

During a press conference on Sunday, Yasutoshi Nishimura, minister in charge of economic revitalization, indicated that lifting the declaration "is coming into sight for most of the 34 prefectures."

Among the 13 on special alert, "some of them, such as Gifu and Ibaraki, are seeing drastic decreases in their reported cases," Nishimura said. "The declaration can be lifted for such prefectures depending on their situation."

The government plans to soon release criteria for lifting the declaration, which will likely include not only the number of patients in a prefecture, but also the percentage of cases with an unknown infection route; the state of a prefecture's medical services, such as how many polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests have been conducted; and the state of infections in neighboring areas.

At the press conference, Nishimura also said that when the government releases its basic response policy at the time the declaration is lifted, it will detail what the public needs to be cautious about in daily life. This is aimed at preventing the virus from spreading further as people lower their guard.

The government will call for the public to continue to refrain from moving across prefectural borders, including traveling to and from areas that still have a large number of cases, according to the sources.

The government will hold another meeting of the expert panel around May 21 to discuss whether the declaration can be lifted for additional prefectures, the sources said.