Japanese prefectural governors asked the government Wednesday to treat Tokyo and three neighbors as well as Osaka Prefecture and two neighbors as groups in considering whether to lift its coronavirus state of emergency on Thursday. 

The metropolitan area including Tokyo and Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures and the Kansai area of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures are "socially and economically close," they said after a video conference of the National Governors' Association.

The seven prefectures plus Hokkaido remain under the state of emergency after the central government lifted it for the remaining 39 prefectures last week.

The governors also demanded that the government increase the amount of its emergency grant to help prefectures prepare their medical care systems for a second wave of coronavirus infections.

They also called for a drastic increase in subsidies for local economic revitalization to at least over 3 trillion yen to overcome what they said is the biggest crisis since the end of World War II.

The governors highlighted the need for continued voluntary restrictions on movement, saying there has been an increase in the number of people who go out even in the eight prefectures placed under the state of emergency.

JIJI Press