Four more coronavirus infections have been reported in Japan as of Friday afternoon, bringing the total number to 1,405. This includes 14 confirmed cases among people who returned from China's Hubei Province on chartered flights.
The figure was provided by the health ministry and local governments. It includes 33 cases among health ministry staff, quarantine officers and those who were found to have the virus during arrival checks at airports.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government set up a coronavirus task force on Friday following a spike in the number of confirmed cases in the Japanese capital.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has warned that the city faces the risk of an explosive growth in infections. She has asked Tokyo residents to avoid going out this weekend.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has warned that Japan's economy would be hard hit if Tokyo is locked down due to the coronavirus.
Abe made the comment in response to an opposition lawmaker's question about a recent spike in infections in the Japanese capital.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says the development of coronavirus vaccines and medicines to treat infectious disease will be the government's top priority. He called the current pandemic a threat to all mankind.
Abe attended a health and medical strategies task force meeting at the prime minister's office on Friday. Strategies for the coming five years were drawn up at the meeting.
The Japanese government decided on Friday to invalidate visas issued in 11 countries in Southeast Asia, Middle East and Africa due to the coronavirus pandemic.
About 750,000 visas issued by Japanese embassies in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia, Israel, Qatar, Bahrain, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo will no longer be valid from Saturday.
A Japanese woman infected with the coronavirus has told NHK that she lost her sense of taste and smell for about 10 days from the early onset of symptoms.
That comes after the World Health Organization said earlier this week that it had received a series of reports of similar cases.
NHK has learned that the Japanese government's task force drew up a draft policy to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.
The policy says prefectural governors could ask residents to refrain from going out for about 3 weeks, if the prime minister declares a state of emergency to deal with the outbreak.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has confirmed 47 new cases of coronavirus infection, another daily high.
Government officials made the announcement at a news conference on Thursday.
Japan's government has launched a new task force to fight a growing coronavirus outbreak. The move paves the way for the Prime Minister to declare a state of emergency based on a newly enacted law.
Shinzo Abe said, "In order to overcome the challenge our country is now facing, the state, local governments, medical workers, business operators and all residents need to be united and push ahead with measures to tackle the illness caused by the new coronavirus. I want the minister in charge of the special law, the health minister, and other relevant ministers to swiftly come up with basic guidelines."
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has presided over the first meeting of a government task force based on a coronavirus-response law enacted early this month.
The move comes in response to a rapid rise in the number of new coronavirus infections in Tokyo this week.
The Japanese government launched a coronavirus task force based on new legislation on Thursday. A panel of experts will meet so the task force can draw up a basic policy to deal with the outbreak.
A similar policy was compiled under former legislation when a new strain of influenza spread around the world in 2009.
Japan's embassy in Peru says it will arrange a chartered flight on Friday or later to evacuate Japanese tourists stranded by the coronavirus pandemic.
About 230 Japanese have been confined to hotels and other accommodations in Peru since the Peruvian government declared an emergency on March 15 and closed its borders, halting all international flights.
Japan's top court has finalized a ruling against Okinawa Prefecture over a landfill project needed to move a US airbase in the southern prefecture.
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an appeal by the prefectural government to halt the project.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike says she will ask the governors of Tokyo's four neighboring prefectures to cooperate in urging residents to avoid going out this weekend, to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
Koike told reporters on Thursday that she plans to hold a teleconference with the governors of Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba and Yamanashi later in the day. She said she hopes the five Tokyo metropolitan area governors will be able to issue a joint appeal.