No emergency

you don't think its an emergency but you are all wearing masks...

"protesting against his declaration of a state of emergency in Tokyo and other big cities amid the spread of the new coronavirus."

This is confusing. Are they protesting his handling of the situation, or the being in a state of emergency itself?

Such a huge turnout!

I bet this has Abe quaking in his boots!

(sarcasm)

More details needed before casting judgement.

What a funny photo. Wearing masks while objecting to the State of Emergency. Exactly who are they trying to protect from what?

Wow, if its not an emergency then why wear the masks?

A lot of people wear masks because they suffer from hayfever; or here, to cover their faces so they don't get recognised and harassed later.

idiots

No social distancing. Idiots.

So if the government were trying to evacuate a coastal area before a tsunami, I'm sure these same types of folks would be protesting at the beach. Can't fix stupid.

they all wanna keep "business as usual"...

I ask myself how were things here during wartime...were people definitely working and not taking shelter? telework was not an option back then either...

during war you actually have a macroscopic enemy you can actually see, so I feel that in a sense things are more threatening now...

Contrarians

I love the herd mentality right now, were people are unable to think for more than 5 milliseconds before exploding in a rampage about social distancing, and everyone who isn't in the panic train with full force being stupid.

By god, I've been seen people saying those things when experts say things like "I think the peak at Italy is over", which is a good assessment looking at the data, but some people won't believe anything which isn't something negative about the coronavirus, and won't even care to research if it is true.

They are protesting the fact that they fear this Emergency Declaration will be used by Abe to push his constitutional amendment agenda.

They are also protesting the idea of declaring an emergency without any other real policy changes, and just thinking about very tame and stupid bailouts for corporations.

what actually they want?

the whole world is going to follow lockdown but they don't. Is there any other solution for them. Yes, it may true some business will be close with this pandemic. It will be tough to living. But

this is not only in Japan, but the whole world is also going to face a big economic crisis. this is the reality. I think there are two choices, you want to alive or you want to face an economic crisis for a particular time. And this not only a matter of them, but this is also the matter of everyone. I think they can understand better later. I believe they should stop this and everyone should make a distance for a while to live better.

I hope someone in this picture can read my comment.

do you know how stupid you look protesting the state of emergency while wearing masks. If you think Japan is so safe, take off you mask and take a walk through Some hospitals treating Coronavirus patients

Who are these people? I can’t imagine a group without an ulterior motive protesting the lockdown.

You know that most people on this site are gaijin when they think that wearing masks is strange. Do you even live here? We have been wearing masks for years and years.

Go ahead, protest ....... and your counter-propsal that works better is...?????

Absolute nut jobs. Have 'zero' tolerance for this sort of antics.

Heaven forbid if it was a 'lockdown' like in other parts of the World, proving - albeit in varying rates of success - that social distancing / quarantining WORKS!

Right to protest, ...fair enough. Just that this is absolute 'non' sense. Nonsense.

"We demand our right to become infected, and to then infect others!"

Dont get them wrong

They are complaining not about the government's recognition about the situation but about their politics.

The emergency declaration can be linked to emergency provisions so that the gov can control citizens

and that is one of the most controversial issues Abe wants to make effective regarding his constitutional amendment policy. So basically this photo is NOT about the corona.

But anyway the protestants and other japanese are so naive. European countries do control their people already in this circumstance without exceptions like barbers, DIY stores. Japan gov is so easy on people.

if you are aware of the political stand point amongst the Japanese, you'd know that there's a group of people whom would protest against anything and everything that the current prime minister would say/do.

i will guarantee you, even if PM Abe said "there should be peace on earth", they'd for sure disagree.

interestingly, they're usually supporters of about 5 far left political parties such as the communist party or the CDP etc., which gains about 6.2% of approvals collectively.

Surely being able to protest in any society means free speech is recognised?

Seems healthy to me...

Japanese always wear masks its really nothing new