Lower House Passes Emergency Declaration Bill
The Lower House of Japan's Diet has passed a bill to enable the prime minister to declare a state of emergency to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.
The legislation won the approval at a plenary session of the Lower House on Thursday with a majority vote from the governing Liberal Democratic Party, its coalition partner Komeito, the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, and others. The bill was then sent to the Upper House for a final Diet endorsement.
An emergency declaration by the prime minister would allow prefectural governors to order school closures and ask people to stay home.
The bill was deliberated and approved by a Lower House committee on Wednesday.
The committee also approved a supplementary resolution saying the Diet must be given advance notice before a state of emergency is declared -- unless doing so is too urgent.
The resolution also says sufficient consideration must be given to those who will suffer economically from restrictions on use of facilities.
