NJPW Planning To Continue With Shows Despite State Of Emergency

Prime Minister of Japan Yoshihide Suga on Thursday announced a new state of emergency in the Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba prefectures in the face of rising COVID-19 cases in the greater Tokyo area.

The new restrictions began today and will remain in place until at least February 7. The government has issued a number of requests related to restaurants, pubs and cafes and companies have been asked to increase the number of employees working from home by 70 percent. 

In relation to professional wrestling, people have been asked to stay at home after 8 pm and large events are limited to 50 percent capacity or up to 5,000 attendees, depending on which figure is smaller. 

Dave Meltzer reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that as of right now, New Japan Pro-Wrestling is planning to continue running shows. The promotion will hold their first event since New Year Dash on January 17 and 10 of the 12 shows before February 7 are scheduled to take place in the greater Tokyo area. 

The events are currently scheduled to begin at 6:30 pm or later, which would limit most of them to 90 minutes or less under the new restrictions.