TOKYO: Japan is trying to keep its guard up against the novel coronavirus as the country's Golden Week holiday period began in earnest on Wednesday.

There are concerns that people will lower their guard and go on sightseeing or homecoming trips, possibly leading to an increase in the number of infections, although authorities are calling on the public to refrain from going out during the holiday period.

Only a limited number of people flew to Naha Airport in the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Japan, on Wednesday, with most of them visiting the prefecture for essential reasons such as business and going to hospital.

But a corporate worker in his 50s from Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, said that he came to Okinawa with his wife for sightseeing as he is off duty.

The body temperatures of travelers are checked by a thermography installed at the arrival gate of the airport in the capital of Okinawa.

Earlier, as many as 60,000 people had booked flights to Okinawa during the Golden Week period. After Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki repeatedly asked these people not to visit the prefecture to lower the risk of coronavirus infection among local residents, however, most of the flight bookings were canceled.

The number of travelers on Shinkansen bullet trains has also dropped dramatically. A train on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line of East Japan Railway Co., or JR East, which links Tokyo and the Tohoku northeastern Japan region, had no passenger for its nonreserved seats on Wednesday.

At Nagoya Station of Central Japan Railway Co., or JR Tokai, in the Aichi capital of Nagoya, Aichi prefectural government employees wearing face masks or face shields started on the day to ask travelers to have their temperatures checked on a voluntary basis.

In addition, leaflets calling on people to refrain from nonessential outings were distributed at the station.

Forty-six people were checked for their temperatures during an hour at Nagoya Station, and none of them had a fever of 37.5 degrees Celsius or higher.

"I was a little surprised (by the temperature check system), but I was relieved to find that I have no fever," said a male corporate employee, 28, who came to Nagoya for relocation from the southwestern Japan city of Fukuoka.

"Checking passengers' body temperatures is a very good thing," said 59-year-old housewife Kayoko Arimura, a resident of Nagoya, who returned from a trip for taking care of her parents.

Expressway operators have decided not to offer toll discounts on holidays during the period from Wednesday to May 6 while asking tenants at rest areas to temporarily shut.

In the central prefecture of Nagano, which is putting its tourism campaign on hold, billboards asking people to stay home have been put up at nine local train stations, including Karuizawa Station on JR East's Hokuriku Shinkansen Line, which connects Tokyo and the Hokuriku region of central Japan.

Nagano prefectural officials continue patrolling such tourist spots as Zenkoji temple in the city of Nagano, the capital of the prefecture, and Matsumoto Castle in the city of Matsumoto, to call on people to refrain from going out.

JIJI Press