Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

In a news conference Monday evening, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe touted the country’s ability to flatten the curve and lift the emergency declaration in about a month and a half — without compulsory lockdown measures seen in the United States and Europe,pointing out that the number of patients in hospitals has decreased to below 2,000. He based this on a judgement call after seeing that the country had met the strict standard therefore lifting the state of emergency in comparison to other countries.