TOKYO will lift all restrictions on businesses starting today amid signs that the Covid-19 pandemic is waning in Japan's capital city.
Although concerns remain over a potential second wave of infections in the megacity, cross prefectural travel is also allowed, in the hope of giving a boost to the country's economic activities which had been slowed by the pandemic.
City authorities have also withdrawn their temporary closure requests on live music venues, nightclubs and similar entertainment establishments where people come into close contact in enclosed spaces.
This is the last phase of the government's three-step restriction easing process.
Kyodo News reports that most other businesses have already begun operating under previous easing steps.
Eateries were allowed to return to business as normal with the lifting of the government request that they shorten opening hours.
The loosening of restrictions comes despite the capital still recording double digit daily new infections, with more than 90 people in total returning positive coronavirus tests from Monday to Wednesday.
On Monday alone, Tokyo logged 48 new coronavirus infections, marking the largest daily tally since May 5. It also reported 41 new cases on Thursday.
Infections spread in Tokyo from late March, with the daily new case total eclipsing 200 in mid-April.
While the figures fell in May, there was a spike after the state of emergency was lifted on May 25.
Earlier this week, Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike said the recent increases in the daily total reflected efforts to track infection routes and the better cooperation from the nightlife industry in testing.
She maintained the increase does not indicate worsening levels of community transmission.
Tokyo, with a population of about 14 million, laid out a three-step plan to ease virus restrictions by setting numerical infection milestones, with museums and schools reopened in the first phase, following the lifting in late May of a state of emergency.
In the second phase of easing from June 1, sports facilities and theatres reopened.
In the third phase from June 12, pachinko parlours (a form of Japanese slot machines) and karaoke venues were permitted to resume operations.