Suga seeks to make antivirus measures legally binding for businesses, punish violators

I know right??? Finally the PM is realizing reality and hope he continues to take this pandemic more seriously and protects the people

Please enforce the law work from here me if you can. Internet giants are working from home

I meant to say enforce work from home if you can until pandemic is over to save lives

Well stone the crows, it is possible to make stricter rules. What on earth have they been messing around at the last 10 months? It’s absolutely ridiculous.

They can’t enforce work from home.

this is not a police state.

Let's see if this legislation has a chance of passing.

This could be a step out of abe's shadow

The urging will be made to restaurants, bars.

Nobody is going to stop people from going to the office.

Suga said experts are discussing the legislation to make coronavirus more effectively enforced and hoped to submit the bill for parliamentary approval “as soon as possible” next year.

As soon as possible never before March/April.

Until then, save yourselves!

Of No importance, it will take forever. What he has to do NOW is to approve the vaccines, plan for the inoculation campaign and get it started. All the rest is to late and getting by until we start the inoculation.

Always running behind things and ignoring the short circuits to a solution.

How about forcing people to wear masks on the trains?

Actually they should have declared a State of Emergency a month ago and immediately suspended Go to Travel.

There was no punishment related to the State of Emergency earlier in the year and it worked well.

Because the Government failed to do this earlier now they need to consider more drastic measures. The Japanese people I know ( family, acquaintances, work related) have lost faith in the “leadership”

Suga’s government has been unable to slow the ongoing upsurge of the infections despite his requests for basic preventive measures.

Actually, Suga's government seems to have caused an upsurge by his requests to spread the virus around Japan. To make matters worse he used taxpayer's money by subsidizing travel, thereby encouraging people not to stay home.

Suga said experts are discussing...

Oh, that's good to know. /s

ZorotoToday 04:10 pm JST

Why wasn't this done 10 months ago?

If done 10 months ago, I guess you would have criticized Abe at that time for implementing such harsh measures going against the Japanese Constituion, and relying on strict law enforcement as some western countries did.

Why wasn't this done 10 months ago?

> How can a sitting PM put forth legislation? It's the LDP lower house members who introduce bills, not the PM. This would also give the PM a lot of authoritarian power, if it passes - and there's no reason to think it won't.

Back in last spring, the government and the ruling LDP under Abe were trying to introduce the bill. It is the opposition group who resisted and sabotaged the legislation process claiming it could be unconstitutional leading to abuse of power (by Abe). They are responsible for delaying moves.

Actually they should have declared a State of Emergency a month ago and immediately suspended Go to Travel.

There was no punishment related to the State of Emergency earlier in the year and it worked well.

The emergency declaration is not legally binding, unable to force people and businesses to cooperate without support or penalty. As the opposition group are concerned, it could lead to the arbitration and abuse of power by the government, and many cases could be brought to the court.

Far too late, but there is an urgent need to stop focusing on travellers, who are already subject to restrictions and testing, and concentrate on those already in Japan. I saw a news report about Corona on TV yesterday and it was looking at foreigners and travellers and airports all of which makes most of those in Japan complacent as they think the virus isn’t a problem for them.

Steak restaurants are exempt from any future rules though...

Dearest honorable prime minister. If you gave everyone a guaranteed wage/salary/lost income guarantees, then we would all gladly hibernate for two months and get rid of this horrible, nasty little virus. But the truth is that government coffers are empty and the inbound “criminal element” foreign inbounders you all so blindly relied on to boost the depleted stock can no longer enter Japan, so you have no money to pay businesses to shut and for individuals to stay home.

Your plan B, the disastrously time GoTo just made matters worse and now you have less money to do us all a favor.

So we all look forward to what you and your bonenkai meetings with your mates comes up with.

In other countries, the threat of arrest had the reverse effect of driving people to protest draconian government orders, which ultimately were far less successful at combating the virus than Japan’s softer social pressure approach was. Why aim for a police state now when that approach already backfired elsewhere?

Scratch a politician and find a tyrant...every time.

Why wasn't this done 10 months ago?

Because Dentsu hadn't thought of it yet?

Cui bono.

This situation sure is bringing out the closet authoritarians. Imagine what they'd be like if this virus were actually as lethal as the doomsayers make it out to be. Some perspective, please.

Remember the old adage, "Slow and steady wins the race"? well, the steady slowness of Japan has won us nothing, and it's lost the nation heaps. It will soon even lose the nation the Olympics they've sacrificed people's lives for, including a DIET member just today.

So much about that super great vaccinations we can rely on and are bringing paradise back to Earth....lol

Good move.

Compulsory high-capacity HEPA air purifiers sounds great for everyone's safety

Does that include the obligation for restaurant to limit group side to 5 people ?

This way next time some LDP member got caught partying, they can put the blame on the shop.

So, they expected people to close their shops and turn away customers voluntarily and they are shocked it didn’t work? Amazing!