According to Japan's Kyodo news 26, the Japanese government announced the 26th , from the local time at 0:00 on the 28th until the end of January next year, the moratorium on new immigrants from all countries and regions.
According to the Nikkei Shimbun, new entry refers to foreigners who have newly applied for a visa to enter Japan. During Japan’s entry restrictions, Japanese nationals and long-term foreigners living in Japan will be allowed to return to Japan.
Due to the increase in the number of new coronavirus infections that have mutated in countries around the world, the Japanese government has adopted entry restrictions. For natives returning to Japan, the "14-day quarantine" conditional mitigation policy implemented on November 1 has been cancelled, and relevant response measures have been strengthened.
In order to boost economic activities in the cold due to the epidemic, the Japanese government has been advancing the immigration easing policy. However, due to the confirmation of a highly infectious and mutated new coronavirus infection in Japan, epidemic prevention measures have to be strengthened again.
According to the Japan Broadcasting Association, according to the data reported by local governments and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Japan, from 0:00 to 20:00 local time on the 26th, 3877 new cases were confirmed in Japan. So far, the total number of people infected with new coronary pneumonia in Japan has reached 218,430 There were 47 new deaths and a total of 3234 deaths. On the 26th, 949 people were newly infected in Tokyo, a record high in the number of newly infected people in a single day in Tokyo. The cumulative number of infected people in Tokyo reached 55,851.
On the 25th, local time earlier, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced that it had confirmed the discovery of a virus consistent with the genetic sequence of the mutant new coronavirus discovered in the UK for the first time in Japan. The related 5 infected people returned to Japan from the UK between the 18th and 21st, and the domestic airport quarantine office confirmed the infection of these 5 people. It is reported that 4 of these 5 people are asymptomatic, and a man in his 60s has a feeling of fatigue.
Japan's economy may not recover until 2022
The new crown epidemic has plunged the Japanese economy into an unprecedented recession, and the economic downturn has exceeded that of the United States. Looking forward to 2021, although the Japanese economy is expected to continue to recover slowly, it may be difficult to return to the level before the epidemic.
In the first two quarters of this year, the Japanese economy actually fell 2.1% and 29.2% at an annual rate, respectively. The depth of the economic decline in the second quarter became the largest drop since comparable statistics.
According to CCTV News, on the 8th local time, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced the launch of the third major economic stimulus plan with a total scale of US$708 billion. On the same day, the revised data released by the Cabinet Office of Japan showed that the annual growth rate of the Japanese economy in the third quarter of this year reached 22.9%.
In order to alleviate the impact of the epidemic on the economy, Japan has previously passed two rounds of economic stimulus plans, with a total expenditure of 235 trillion yen (2.25 trillion US dollars), accounting for 40% of Japan's GDP. Compared with this economic stimulus plan, the first two rounds of plans focused on stimulating domestic demand and stimulating consumption in Japan that was hit by the epidemic. The relief targets were mainly individuals, families, and small and medium-sized enterprises.
Japan’s latest public opinion survey showed that the approval rate of the cabinet led by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga fell to 50.3%, a drop of more than 10 percentage points from the 63% approval rate last month. At the same time, Japan's new crown pneumonia epidemic continues to worsen, and the number of new confirmed cases in a single day remains high. More than 50% of the interviewees believed that the Japanese government’s “Go To Travel” plan was the cause of the outbreak in Japan.
According to China-Singapore Jingwei, citing Reuters' Chinese website, some analysts said that the Japanese economy will shrink less than originally expected this year, but it will not return to the level before the new crown epidemic at least until early 2022.
According to the report, although the economy is still affected by the epidemic, interviewed analysts still have different views on the next policy action of the Bank of Japan. This highlights the belief that more people believe that the central bank's means to support economic growth may have been exhausted.
A December Reuters survey of 27 analysts showed that in the current fiscal year ending in March, the Japanese economy may shrink by 5.3%, higher than the 5.6% contraction estimated in November. The forecast increase is mainly due to the revision of Japan's gross domestic product (GDP) from July to September to an annual rate of 22.9%, which is better than the initial estimate due to the recovery of consumption and capital expenditure. In addition, Japan’s $708 billion new economic stimulus package is also expected to support a fragile economic recovery.
Harumi Taguchi, chief analyst at IHS Markit, said that “if overseas demand accelerates growth” and the government’s stimulus package encourages companies to increase spending, “economic recovery may accelerate”.
Analysts expect Japan's economy to rebound by 3.4% in the next fiscal year, in line with the November survey forecast. However, the recent surge in new crown cases may slow the recovery.
Six of the 40 analysts interviewed expect that the Japanese economy will return to pre-epidemic levels in the fiscal year beginning in April 2021, 15 are expected to be in fiscal year 2022, and 19 are expected to be in fiscal year 2023. Years or later.
