美国国家公共电台 NPR 日本宣布东京等七个县市进入紧急状态（在线收听）

Japan declared a state of emergency today in and around its two biggest cities. Now, the Japanese government says this is not a lockdown and that the country will still function. At the moment, Japan only has about 4,000 cases of COVID-19, but that number is going up. NPR's Anthony Kuhn has been following all of this from Seoul in South Korea. Hey, Anthony.

今天，日本宣布其两大城市及周边地区进入紧急状态。日本政府表示，这并不是封城，该国仍将继续运转。目前，日本只报告了约4000例新冠肺炎病例，但这个数字还在上升。NPR新闻的安东尼·库恩一直在从韩国首尔追踪相关消息。你好，安东尼。

ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: Hey, Noel.

安东尼·库恩连线：你好，诺埃尔。

KING: So what powers does the government have now that it's declared a state of emergency?

金：日本已经宣布进入状态，那政府现在有什么权力？

KUHN: Well, the emergency will cover the capital, Tokyo, and the second city, Osaka, and five prefectures that surround it — surround them. And it will go into effect tonight and last for about a month. And the main thing is that it gives these prefectural governments the power to request residents to stay home and request businesses to stay shut. But the law on infectious diseases does not specify any penalties if they don't. It gives them a few extra powers, like they can take control of private land and buildings for temporary medical facilities. But the main thing is that, you know, Tokyo and other prefectures have not waited for this. They've already made the request to citizens to stay at home, and the citizens have mostly complied. So you could argue that although the government isn't getting many extra powers from this emergency, they may not need them anyway.

库恩：紧急状态将覆盖日本首都东京、日本第二大城市大阪以及周边五个县。紧急状态将于今晚开始实施，持续一个月左右。重要的是，紧急状态使这些县政府有权请求居民呆在家中，并请求企业暂停营业。但传染病法并未明确违规行为的处罚措施。这赋予了他们一些额外的权力，比如，他们可以控制私有土地和用作临时医疗设施的建筑。但最主要的是，东京和其他县在紧急状态宣布前就采取了措施。他们已经请求市民呆在家中，而且市民也基本上遵守了这一要求。因此，可以说，尽管政府没有从紧急状态中获得太多额外权力，但他们可能也并不需要。

KING: OK. But you said something interesting there. You said this is a request. Does that mean there's no — does that mean this is essentially symbolic?

金：好。你刚提到了一些值得注意的情况。你说这是请求。这是否意味着这从本质上来说是象征性的？

KUHN: Well, yeah. I mean, the police can't punish you for not complying, so it is sort of symbolic. But people may take it more seriously. Governors can now act with more legal authority. But as an expert said to me, ordinary citizens may be more concerned with getting more test kits and hospital beds and less about legal authority.

库恩：对。警察不能因为市民不遵守而进行惩罚，可以说这是象征性的。但人们可能会更认真对待。现在，日本县长可以行使更多的法律权力。但一名专家告诉我，普通市民可能更关心得到更多的检测试剂盒、设置更多医院病床，而不太关心法律权力。

KING: Sure. That makes sense. Four thousand cases all told is not ideal, but it also isn't a lot. How is the virus spreading in Japan?

金：好。这可以理解。日本现有4000例确诊病例，这不是太理想，但数量也不是很多。该病毒是如何在日本传播的？

KUHN: Well, people had thought at first that Japan was somehow going to dodge the bullet, that it was going to have less cases than its neighbors. But this seems to put that to rest. People have argued for a long time that they're not testing enough. And now experts who advise the government say that some cities' hospitals are at capacity and may soon be overwhelmed. So the time for declaring this emergency was really more like two weeks ago. In a way, though, it's not that odd because even countries like South Korea, which is — which have tested for the virus very aggressively, have still been overwhelmed in places. And so they've had to switch strategies from testing and isolating infected patients to mitigating the impact of the virus and then beefing up hospitals and doing social distancing.

库恩：人们最初以为日本会以某种方式躲过这一劫，其确诊病例会少于邻国。但现状似乎并非如此。很长时间以来，人们一直认为他们没有进行足够的测试。现在，为政府提供建议的专家表示，一些城市的医院已经达到满负荷，可能很快就会不堪重负。因此，宣布紧急状态的时间应该在两周之前。但从某种程度上来说，这并不奇怪，因为就连韩国这种非常积极地进行病毒检测的国家，也有一些地方不堪重负。所以，他们不得不改变策略，从检测和隔离感染患者转向减轻病毒的影响，然后强化医院并实施社交距离。

KING: One big question that this has raised, all of these emergency declarations in a lot of countries, is the question of the government versus individual rights. And I wonder when you speak to Japanese people, do you get the sense that they're comfortable with giving the government more power at the expense of them as individuals?

金：这引发了一个重要问题，许多国家宣布了紧急状态，这些都是政府与个人权利的问题。我想知道，在和日本民众交谈时，你有感觉到他们愿意以牺牲个人为代价，赋予政府更多权力吗？

KUHN: Well, clearly, their main concern right now is that the government — they want the government to take strong action to protect them from the virus. At the same time, they're very much aware of Japan's history, and in the runup to World War II, militarists made use of these emergency powers to drag the country into World War II. And Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, has long argued that Japan's constitution should give the government more powers and individual liberty should be curbed. And in fact, Abe did say in Parliament today that lawmakers should consider revising the constitution in order to give the government more powers and perhaps curtail individual rights.

库恩：很明显，他们现在主要关注的是政府，他们希望政府采取强有力的举措来保护他们免遭该病毒的侵袭。同时，他们非常了解日本的历史，二战前夕，军国主义者曾利用这些紧急权力将日本拖入二战。日本首相安倍晋三一直认为，日本宪法应该赋予政府更多权力，而个人自由应该受到限制。事实上，安倍今天在议会确实表示，议员应该考虑修改宪法，以赋予政府更多权力，或许还可以限制个人权利。

KING: Oh, that's really interesting. NPR's Anthony Kuhn joining us from Seoul, South Korea. Anthony, thanks so much.

金：哦，这相当值得注意。以上是是NPR新闻的安东尼·库恩从韩国首尔带来的报道。安东尼，非常谢谢你。

KUHN: You're welcome, Noel.

库恩：不客气，诺埃尔。