OSAKA: The prefectural government of Osaka, western Japan, said Tuesday it will ask about 25,000 restaurants in its capital city of Osaka to move up their closing time to 9 pm or earlier.

The decision was made at a meeting of the prefectural government’s coronavirus response task force amid a recent surge in infection.

The request will be in place for 15 days starting Friday.

Subject to the request will be restaurants in Kita Ward, which hosts the Kitashinchi entertainment district, and Chuo Ward, home to the Minami entertainment district.

“Stores are concentrated in very small areas” in the wards, Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura said at the meeting.

“We aim to prevent the spread of infections in entertainment districts somehow,” he said.

Each store accepting the request will receive a total of 500,000 yen from the central, prefectural and city governments.

Restaurants with no coronavirus preventive measures in place will be asked to shut down.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui asked residents to understand the measure, saying that it is “for preventing the increasingly tight medical care system from collapsing.”

As of Tuesday, the occupancy rate of hospital beds for severely ill coronavirus patients topped 50 percent in the prefecture.

The prefectural government will consider expanding the scope of areas subject to the request and extending its period if infections spread further.

JIJI Press