TOKYO: Pedestrian traffic volumes at stations and airports in urban areas in Japan as of Sunday did not decrease dramatically from a week before, despite the recent rise in the number of new COVID-19 cases in the country, a private survey showed Monday. 

According to the statistical survey by major Japanese mobile phone carrier NTT Docomo Inc.,  the volume of pedestrians at JR Tokyo Station in Chiyoda Ward as of Sunday dropped 56.0 percent from the average on weekends and a holiday between Jan. 18 and Feb. 14, or before the spread of the new coronavirus in Japan.

The rate of decrease was almost unchanged from that logged a week earlier. The volume as of Dec. 6 sagged 56.6 percent from the Jan. 18-Feb. 14 level.

At Shinagawa Station in Tokyo’s Minato Ward, pedestrian traffic on Sunday fell 38.1 percent, compared with a 35.3 percent decline on Dec. 6.

The number of people at Terminal 1 of Tokyo International Airport at Haneda in Ota Ward on Sunday slid 26.6 percent, against a 28.7 percent fall on Dec. 6. 

The gaps in the rates of traffic volume decrease between Sunday and Dec. 6 were also small at Nagoya Station in the central Japan city of Nagoya, Osaka International Airport, also known as Itami Airport, in the western Japan prefecture of Osaka and Hakata Station in Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, ranging from 0.2 percentage point and 6.8 points, according to the survey.

The small gaps suggest that the government’s request for intensive efforts to prevent the further spread of the virus in the three weeks through Wednesday failed to lead to noticeable reductions in people’s movements.

JIJI Press