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On November 20, 2020, the Prime Minister attended the National Governors’ Conference held at the Prime Minister’s Office.

The Prime Minister said in his address,

“Let me introduce myself once again. I am Suga, and I took the office of Prime Minister of Japan on September 16. I am looking forward to working with you and would appreciate your cooperation and support. I also thank you for coming from all across the country today despite your extremely busy schedules.

I am aware that all of the Governors here have been exerting every effort to counter the novel coronavirus. Regarding the infection situation of the novel coronavirus, the number of patients that newly tested positive has exceeded 2,000 people for consecutive days, and the situation requires the greatest possible vigilance.

While having decided on support through grants with regards to the requests made by prefectural governments to shorten business hours, the Government is requesting prefectural governments experiencing the spread of infections to consider excluding dining with no less than five people in principle from the Go To Eat campaign. We ask for your due consideration over our request.

In addition, we have already notified the relevant authorities of all the prefectures to conduct intensive testing at elderly care facilities in the areas experiencing the spread of infections, so as to protect the elderly, who are at high risk of developing severe symptoms. As the Government will cover the necessary cost of testing with the government outlays, we ask you to instruct your respective authorities so that such tests are conducted expeditiously.

We have asked the public to thoroughly implement basic preventive measures, such as wearing face masks, washing hands, and avoiding the three Cs (Closed spaces, Crowded places, and Close-contact settings). In particular, the experts have pointed out the risk of infection through dining and we are asking the public to wear masks, even when dining, namely the MASK dining-style proposed by Governor Kuroiwa.

We will uphold the current fundamental position to recover our economy, by balancing preventive measures and socio-economic activities, with the major premise of thoroughly implementing the former.

Against this backdrop, ‘creating vibrant communities’ is one of the policy issues of highest importance for the Suga Cabinet. Increasing income and reviving consumption in areas outside major cities are essential for revitalizing the whole of Japan. Tokyo and the surrounding three prefectures account for 30 percent of consumption. Other regions account for the remaining 70 percent. Against this backdrop, I would like to ask for your support so as to revitalize these regions.

Moving forward, we intend to hold in-depth discussions with all of you, including today’s meeting, and make efforts to implement relevant policies with the Government working as one. I ask for your cooperation.”