The Japanese government is strengthening the monitoring across the country of variants of the novel coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 disease, Prime Minister SUGA Yoshihide said Friday.

“Through gene analyses at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, we’re closely watching whether major changes have occurred to the pathogenicity and infectiousness (of the coronavirus),” Suga told a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors.

The prime minister also said the national government will help municipal governments proceed with COVID-19 vaccination programs by providing them with the information they need.

He noted that there was no evidence at the moment that existing COVID-19 vaccines do not work against coronavirus variants. Work to approve COVID-19 vaccines in Japan “will be conducted properly,” he added.

Planned revisions to coronavirus-related legislation “will make measures (to combat the coronavirus) more workable,” Suga said. The government adopted bills for the law revisions at a cabinet meeting on the same day.

He called for the bills to be enacted soon, saying that they were “made to reflect the opinions of both ruling and opposition parties.”

Also at the Upper House meeting, Natsuo Yamaguchi, leader of Komeito, the coalition partner of Suga’s Liberal Democratic Party, proposed that Japan participate as an observer in the U.N. nuclear weapons ban treaty, which entered into force on Friday.

“We need to consider carefully our country’s possible involvement in the treaty, including participation as an observer,” Suga said.

JIJI Press