Japan Govt. Subsidies:

 https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210209/p2g/00m/0na/052000c

Article:

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's Cabinet decided Tuesday to disburse 1.14 trillion yen ($11 billion) from reserve funds for fiscal 2020, mainly to increase subsidies for coronavirus pandemic-hit sectors following a one-month extension of the latest emergency declaration.

The funding includes 880.2 billion yen to be given to local municipalities so that they can offer financial aid for restaurants and bars that comply with requests to close early, with state subsidies of up to 60,000 yen per day available.

Ideas:

Subsidies are a very needed resource now for many businesses. And for many it might not be enough. 

Most likely there needs to be some kind of subsidy for as long as it takes until the vaccines are finished and or the number of cases are a very very low level.

Most likely 60,000 yen might help some but maybe not all.

Article:

Food service operators have been asked to stop serving alcohol by 7 p.m. and close by 8 p.m. under the government's second state of emergency declaration, which was extended to March 7 for 10 prefectures.

The state of emergency, declared for the Tokyo metropolitan area on Jan. 7 and later expanded to Tokyo, Osaka and nine other prefectures, was originally scheduled to end last Sunday.

But it was extended by a month as hospitals remain under pressure despite declining coronavirus cases, with Tochigi Prefecture the only area to have the order lifted.

Ideas:

It might be a good incentive for some businesses who can afford to do so and the subsidy might not be a problem for them, but for other businesses the subsidy might not be enough to offset the loss or sales.

If the bulk of restaurant's business is between 8 and 12 at night potentially that is a lot of lost business. 

And if they don't get much business during the late afternoon or early evening that is a problem for many.

Article:

For businesses such as those supplying chopsticks and hand towels to dining and drinking establishments, 249.0 billion yen was earmarked for one-off benefits.

The suppliers can receive up to 600,000 yen, increased from the initial upper limit of 400,000 yen following the emergency extension, if their sales fell remarkably from the previous year.

To conduct monitoring surveys including polymerase chain reaction tests at emergency-targeted areas after the declaration was lifted, 8.1 billion yen was set aside.

The government has set aside a total of 11.50 trillion yen in reserve funds for the current fiscal year through March to be used in response to the pandemic. Following Tuesday's Cabinet approval, 2.68 trillion yen remains in the funds.

Ideas:

The government subsidies, as much as possible should be based, on actual documents showing losses from pre-pandemic to the current situation.

If the government, without a lot of extra paper work, and have businesses show much they have lost in sales then the government maybe can provide a certain percentage of lost sales in some kind of subsidy to help companies survive.

It might not be possible to cover all the losses but the government should set up a plan, if they haven't already to cover as much as they can to help businesses get through the pandemic.

This is not the time to say "let the market decide" who survives and who doesn't. This is the time for government action, as much as possible and also not worry about any extra debt at this time.

Have a nice day and be safe!