Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday that another nationwide school shutdown should be avoided, even if a new wave of the novel coronavirus infection hits the country.

Possible second and third waves of infection "can be dealt with in a way that avoids nationwide school closures as much as possible," Abe told former education minister Masahiko Shibayama, a lawmaker in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, during a meeting at the prime minister's office.

Shibayama serves as the head of an LDP task force studying a potential change in the start of Japan's school year to September from April.

The task force drew up a proposal calling on the government not to introduce the new school year system next year. Shibayama submitted it to Abe at the meeting.

It says that the introduction next year would be "difficult" and that school entrance examinations should be postponed and the March end of the academic year should be pushed back, by about two weeks to one month, in order to give students time to cover delays in their studies cased by the prolonged school closures due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Komeito, the LDP's coalition partner, has made a similar proposal to Abe. The government has effectively given up an early introduction of the September school year system.

JIJI Press