Experts warn the virus would likely soon spread to other regions, including the capital Tokyo, which with almost 36
million people is the world's most populous urban area and the heart of the Japanese economy.
SHOOT: Tokyo is the world's most populous city and the engine of the Japanese economy. I know when I lived in super-crowded Seoul I had a sense that if a sickness broke out here [H5N1 was doing the rounds then] Seoul would be toast. It's just very difficult to isolate people when they are living right on top of each other, in polluted and otherwise fairly unhealthy conditions.
KOBE, Japan (AFP) –
Japan closed more than 4,000 schools and kindergartens, double the previous day's number, to slow the spread of swine flu which has infected 163 people in the country, officials said.
Many people in the affected urban areas were wearing face masks after the western cities of Kobe and Osaka became the first in Japan to suffer domestic outbreaks of the (A)H1N1 virus which spread rapidly through two schools.
A total of 4,043 schools and kindergartens were closed in and around both cities at the request of government authorities, up from some 2,000 on Monday, an education ministry official said.
Japan's number of confirmed cases has risen to 163 -- the fourth largest national figure on the world infection table -- in the central Honshu island region since the first confirmed domestic infection was reported Saturday.
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