Japan's expanded state of emergency over the novel coronavirus pandemic is expected to dent consumer spending by more than 2 trillion yen ($19.3 billion) as the declaration could lift unemployment and cut sales at eateries and retailers, Kyodo cited economists as saying. Takahide Kiuchi, executive economist at the Nomura Research Institute, estimates that consumption will be reduced by 2.3 trillion yen, as Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday the state of emergency declared for Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures last week was being extended to another seven prefectures. The loss corresponds to 0.40 percent of Japan's annual gross domestic product in nominal terms, with residents' income in the capital and the other 10 prefectures including Osaka, Aichi and Fukuoka accounting for 60.6 percent of the country's economy, Kiuchi said. In the 11 prefectures, residents are asked to stay at home, restaurants are requested to close by 8 p.m. and firms are encouraged to have employees work from home or stagger their shifts until Feb. 7. Under the second state of emergency, declared nine months after the first, some service providers such as department stores and some entertainment facilities are also likely to cut their operating hours. The expanded emergency "will increase the number of unemployed people by 373,000, and raise the jobless rate by 0.55 percentage point," Kiuchi said.
