Seven nurses from Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force are being sent to two medical centers in Osaka Prefecture to help deal with a surge in coronavirus infections at the request of the prefectural government.
A departure ceremony was held on Monday at Camp Itami of the GSDF's Middle Army in Itami City in Hyogo Prefecture.
NHK has learned that costs of anti-coronavirus measures for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics are likely to be almost equally shared by the Japanese government and the Tokyo Metropolitan government.
The anti-infection measures for the Games are expected to be about 100 billion yen, or around 960 million dollars.
The Japanese government plans to subsidize operators of public transportation systems to help them introduce new anti-virus measures and cashless payment systems.
Operators of buses, railways and taxis are struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the financial difficulties, some of them are keeping their timetables unchanged so as not to inconvenience local residents as well as medical workers.
The Japanese government plans to step up measures toward the end of the year to fight coronavirus infections.
The government advisory panel on its coronavirus response on Wednesday called for stronger action for a short period of around three weeks. The panel said the government should ask people to refrain from moving to or from areas where the virus is spreading rapidly, if necessary preventive steps are not taken.
A panel of infectious disease experts has urged people in Tokyo to be on high alert for the coronavirus as a rapid increase in infections is just beginning.
Officials of the Tokyo metropolitan government and experts on public health and infectious diseases met on Thursday to assess the coronavirus situation.
Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide has instructed his coronavirus taskforce to use all available means to prevent the spread of the virus, as the daily number of new cases increases ahead of the winter season.
Suga noted at a taskforce meeting on Tuesday that the national daily tally has exceeded 1,000 recently, and said the government needs to respond to the situation with the strongest sense of urgency.