Japan has no plan to declare state of emergency April 1

Japan’s top government spokesman said on Monday there was no truth to rumors the government was planning to declare a state of emergency from April 1 to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga also told a news conference that an expected phone meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), had nothing to do with any decision on whether to call a state of emergency in Japan.