TOKYO: Elementary and junior high schools in central Tokyo resumed classes on Monday after the state of emergency over the outbreak of the new coronavirus was lifted by the Japanese government a week ago.

Reunited with friends after monthslong school closures, students smiled at each other and enjoyed conversations.

In Tokyo, where the state of emergency was removed on May 25, ward-run elementary and junior high schools and metropolitan high schools restarted classes on Monday.

At a public elementary school in Shinagawa Ward, students wearing face masks started arriving around 8 a.m. (11 p.m. Sunday GMT).

Students were asked to submit health check reports listing body temperature and other health information at the schoolyard before entering classrooms, where desks were arranged one meters apart.

"I'm glad to see my friends," a 9-year-old fourth-grade girl said. "Homework assignments (during the home-schooling period) were tough," she added.

Students at each class are divided into two and each group is expected to attend school every other day during June as part of countermeasures against the coronavirus.

"We want to make up for the delays in classes, while exercising caution against a second wave of infections and heatstroke," Shoji Goseki, principal of the school, said.

Meanwhile, Shoin High School, a private school in Higashiosaka, Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, held its entrance ceremony on Monday after three postponements caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

"I finally feel I'm a high school student," Hanane Morita, a 15-year-old new student, said.

Only new students were allowed to take part in the entrance ceremony in order to avoid crowding. A video of the ceremony was streamed online to guardians.

"I'm glad that my grandmother who live away from me were able to watch the ceremony," Morita said.

JIJI Press