TOKYO: The Japanese government's distribution of 100,000 yen in cash per resident will be delayed to June in more than half of major cities for applications made by mail, a Jiji Press survey showed Friday.

The cash handouts are designed to alleviate the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Of 52 major cities surveyed as of Monday, 30 said they will start distributing the handouts in June.

The remaining cities will start the distribution within May or have already started paying the money.

Tsu, the capital of the central prefecture of Mie, started the distribution earliest, on May 13.

Many cities planning to begin the distribution in June have not set a starting date. Among them, Nagoya, the capital of Aichi Prefecture, which neighbors Mie, may be the last to start the distribution.

The western city of Kochi said it will start the distribution for mail applications at the end of June. But it began the distribution on May 22 by accepting downloadable application forms.

The distribution will start in June in nine of the 11 cities with a population of over one million. "System development takes a long time for populous cities that need to reduce manual paperwork," said an official at Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo.

All the 52 surveyed cities started to accept online applications in May. But some of them have suspended work due to shortcomings in the central government's application website.

Of all Japanese municipalities that had started accepting online applications, 24 have suspended or ended the practice, according to the internal affairs ministry.

JIJI Press