Abe vows efforts to prevent spread of coronavirus to Japan

January 23, 2020

Tokyo--Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday promised to make full efforts to prevent the spread of a new strain of coronavirus to Japan.

"We'll enhance border controls and quarantine measures in Japan," Abe told a plenary meeting of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament.

Specifically, the government will request that airlines make in-flight announcements to ask passengers aboard all flights from China, the epicenter of the pneumonia outbreak caused by the virus, to tell staff if they feel ill, according to Abe.

Airlines will also be asked to distribute written advice that passengers visit medical institutions if they find after the arrival in Japan that they have fever, he added.

Earlier in the day, Abe told a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber, that his policy speech delivered Monday did not mention controversial cherry blossom-viewing parties because no related expense is planned under the fiscal 2020 draft budget.

No such event will be held in the year from April, so no related fund is set aside under the draft budget, Abe said. He faces criticism that he used the tax-funded parties for his own gain.

"The prime minister is responsible for all the confusion" stemming from the scandal, Tetsuro Fukuyama, secretary-general of the major opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said, demanding Abe's resignation.

Abe refused to quit, saying that a thorough review will be made to the annual event.

His policy speech did not mention a bribery scandal over a casino-featuring integrated resort project that led to the arrest of a former senior government official, or the alleged election law violation by lawmaker Anri Kawai, over which her husband, Katsuyuki, resigned as justice minister.

On the scandals, Abe said that making comments as head of the cabinet "may affect investigations."

Regarding the casino scandal, Abe told the Lower House that the government will consider including restrictions on contact between government officials and participants to integrated resort projects in the government's planned basic policy on such resorts.

He also said that former Nissan Motor Co. <7201> Chairman Carlos Ghosn's escape from Japan is "very regrettable," vowing to probe how it happened and introduce stricter immigration procedures. Jiji Press