Japan's regions, companies emerge from virus emergency while Tokyo restrictions remain

Large parts of Japan marked the first day out of a state of emergency yesterday while major cities remained under coronavirus restrictions and new testing suggested that contagion in Tokyo was wider than official figures.

Softbank Corp. and McDonald’s Japan said they would return to normal operations in 39 of Japan’s 47 prefectures that are now exempt from the emergency declaration. The 39 prefectures account for 55 per cent of Japan’s 126 million people.