TOKYO: The Japanese government will make utmost efforts to secure enough quarantine facilities for monitoring the health conditions of people returning to the country from abroad, Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio said at the Diet, the country’s parliament, on Thursday.

The remark came at a time when concerns are growing over a possible shortage of hotels and other facilities designated by the government as places to stay for people returning to Japan from some specified countries and regions who are asked to quarantine themselves under a border control measure aimed at preventing the spread of the new omicron strain of the novel coronavirus.

Noting that the government has already secured 9,610 rooms for quarantine, Kishida told a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, that the government will work together with local governments to have more of such rooms available.

Kishida made the statements in response to a question from Hiroyuki Konishi of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. The Upper House meeting was held for political party representatives to ask questions regarding Kishida’s policy speech at the Diet on Monday.

Also at the meeting, the prime minister said the government hopes to consider holding a commemoration ceremony when Okinawa Prefecture marks in 2022 the 50th anniversary of its return to Japan after the post-World War II U.S. occupation, in collaboration with the Okinawa prefectural government.

“We need to give more than a passing thought to the history of Okinawa and publicize the region’s attractions and potential,” Kishida said.

JIJI Press