Tokyo governor says Golden Week must be ‘Stay Home Week’
Tokyo people must reduce their shopping frequency to about once every three days to ease congestion at supermarkets and other stores, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said Wednesday at a task force meeting to combat the new coronavirus at the metropolitan government building.
Such stores in Tokyo continue to be crowded even after the central government declared a state of emergency. Koike also made clear that she will move forward with other plans, such as cooperating with industry groups to create new hours for only the elderly, disabled people and pregnant women to enter stores, and discouraging crowds at stores by reducing the number of shopping baskets.
The Tokyo government has designated the long holiday period called Golden Week — from April 25 to May 6 — as “Stay Home Week,” in which people are particularly required to refrain from going out. As the holiday season will start this weekend, it is forecast that many people will visit metropolitan parks for jogging and walking. The Tokyo government said that it will close parking lots at the parks in an effort to reduce crowd density.