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The Japanese government lifted the state of emergency in Kyoto, Osaka, and Hyogo prefectures on May 21, 2020. However, Kyoto Prefecture is continuing its directive to all universities in the prefecture to restrict the use of facilities on their campuses until May 31. The directive is being maintained because large numbers of students coming to Kyoto from other prefectures to attend the universities could increase the risk of infection. Based on Kyoto Prefecture’s decision to continue the directive, Kyoto University shall, in principle, continue to permit the conducting of online classes only.
Regarding research activities, based on the “Guidelines for research activities during the implementation of measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus,” issued by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) on May 14, 2020, researchers are requested to work at home and reduce the time spent engaging in research at their laboratories as much as possible. As the state of emergency continues to be in effect in the Tokyo metropolitan area and Hokkaido, travel to those “special alert” prefectures is prohibited, except for unavoidable reasons. I also request our students, faculty, and staff to avoid non-essential travel to all other prefectures as much as possible.
Based on these circumstances, Kyoto University shall reduce its level of activity restriction from Level 3 to Level 2 in all three categories from May 22.
However, as Kyoto Prefecture’s directive to restrict the use of facilities on campus remains in effect, we are required to act with utmost caution to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Therefore, even though the level of activity restriction has been reduced, I request all faculties and departments to continue taking all possible coronavirus prevention measures as appropriate for each situation.
Juichi Yamagiwa
Director
Disaster Response Task Force
