Osaka ¨C Tokyo on Thursday was included in the Go To Travel campaign, the government-subsidized discounts program to boost domestic tourism, raising concerns about the risk of spreading coronavirus infections to other prefectures.
Local governments were expressing a mixture of hope and unease about the inclusion of Tokyo¡¯s 13.9 million residents in the ?1.35 trillion campaign, which began in late July for all other prefectures. While Tokyo is a major source of domestic tourism for many areas, it is also the source of about 30 percent of Japan¡¯s nearly 84,000 coronavirus cases as of Thursday.
Tokyo was initially excluded by the government from the July start of the campaign due to concerns that a large influx of Tokyo visitors elsewhere and vice versa could risk increased infections in places outside the capital with limited medical facilities.
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