By prefecture, the rate was highest in Yamanashi at 98.6%, and lowest in Akita, at 83.0%.
The rate stood at 96.9% in Hokkaido, 96% in Osaka and 94.5% in Tokyo. The three prefectures are seeing rapid growth in the number of newly confirmed infections.
Meanwhile, the proportion of people working remotely fell to some 20% in July from around 30% in May, when the government’s state of emergency over the coronavirus was in place, according to a survey by the Japan Productivity Center. The rate dropped below 20% in October.
But some companies are starting to again reduce the number of employees working at offices.
Toshiba Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. advised employees to take paid holidays around the holidays to enable them to take up to 18 and 17 straight days off, respectively.
A poster at a supermarket in Tokyo operated by Summit Inc. says it will close during the first three days of the new year. This photo was taken on Dec. 3. (Yoshikatsu Nakajima)
This New Year’s sales season is going to look a lot different from normal under the COVID-19 pandemic, with many supermarkets closing and far fewer lucky bags lining department store shelves.
Summit Inc., which operates food supermarkets in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area, will close 113 stores almost all its outlets between Jan. 1 and Jan. 3. It is the first time in 33 years it will close its stores during the period.