Text by M.Morita   Narration by Heba.A

●Schools and companies will be on a vacation during the New Year Holiday, which is from the end of December to the beginning of January.

●Usually, many people spend this new year holiday traveling, visiting families, or getting together with colleagues to have the Boh-Nen-Kai party to celebrate the end of a year of hard work, or the Shin-Nen-Kai party to celebrate a beginning of a new year full of opportunities and success.However, the spread of COVID-19 cannot be ignored this year.

●The Japanese government has initiated the Go-To-Travel campaign to support the service industry by providing discounts on hotel prices. However, this campaign will be temporarily suspended nationwide from December 28th to January 11th. The campaign has been already suspended for traveling to & from Sapporo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo as of December 14th. During those dates, you can still travel but there will be no discount on hotel prices.

●In areas where the number of infected people is increasing, restaurants are asked to shorten their business hours. If the number of new cases continues to increase, the restaurants may have to shorten their business hours even during the New Year Holidays as well.

●If you are planning to meet your friends or family that you haven’t seen for a long time, be extra careful not to be infected by COVID-19 for at least two weeks before meeting them. When meeting them, check the condition of your body beforehand. Now you can have a safe and enjoyable holiday.

Source:

NHKニュースWeb

GoToトラベル 全国一斉に停止へ 今月28日～1月11日 菅首相表明

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20201214/k10012764041000.html

高山義浩 | 沖縄県立中部病院感染症内科・地域ケア科

Yahooニュース　「年末年始に帰省を予定されている方々へ コロナ感染対策、３つの注意点」

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/takayamayoshihiro/20201201-00210354/