Visitors crowd as they offer prayers on the first business day of the New Year at the Kanda Myojin shrine, frequented by worshippers seeking good fortune and prosperous business, in Tokyo, Japan, January 4, 2024. REUTERS/Issei Kato
Across the country, infections of streptococcus bacteria of the throat are being diagnosed at quadruple the pace of the past five years, according to a health ministry report earlier this month. The disease is not a respiratory illness like pneumonia or Covid-19, so it is unlikely to lead to a pandemic situation, said Hitoshi Honda, an infectious disease professor at Fujita Health University.