TOKYO: Japan’s Prime Minister SUGA Yoshihide warned Friday that the country is “seeing signs” of a resurgence of novel coronavirus infections.

While noting the possibility of seasonal influenza and novel coronavirus infections spreading simultaneously toward winter, Suga emphasized that the government is taking countermeasures “at full alert.”

He made the remarks at a meeting of the Budget Committee of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament.

On the plan to establish a government agency tasked with promoting digitalization, the prime minister said that his administration will step up efforts to integrate and standardize systems used by the central and local governments in order to set up the foundations for the digitalization of society.

The government aims to realize the initiatives over the next five years and will consider a related legal framework if needed, he said.

Digital transformation minister Takuya Hirai told the committee meeting that the central government will lead efforts to set up a cloud framework to ease small municipalities’ burdens related to system integration.

The central government will grant authority to the planned digital agency over the management of data held by local governments on the basic register of residents, local taxes, nursing insurance and others, Hirai said.

JIJI Press