Japan theaters reopen with anime movies

Days before the formal announcement was made to lift the state of emergency in some prefectures of Japan, a statement was issued by three cinema chains in which they announced the reopening of some of their theaters from the next 15 of May. These Japanese cinemas open their doors for the first time after a little more than a month of being closed due to the pandemic situation.

The closing of theaters in Japan began in the last days of March when the governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, asked companies to close their theaters on weekends. This measure caused the suspension of the premiere for the film Fate / Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel III. Spring Song.

Although the cinemas will begin to enter circulation again, this will not be possible yet in the metropolitan areas of the Japanese country such as Tokyo, Osaka and their surrounding prefectures. This could further extend the delay period for many anime tapes that had to be suspended.

To combat this, the cinemas that will begin to open in the next few days will offer previously released anime films such as Kimi no Na wa (Your Name), Tenki no Ko (Weathering with You), Promare, Yowamushi Pedal The Movie and many plus. They will also offer titles like Shin Godzilla and Parasite, the Korean Oscar-winning film.

Theaters will have to implement social distancing rules to be able to operate between which they are asked to leave a couple of empty seats between each attendee to their rooms. They will also have to make use of hand sanitizers, ask their assistants to wear masks, as well as deny their services to people who are not from the prefectures where the state of emergency has already been lifted, this measure still does not know how to will apply.

The cinemas that will open from May 15 are:

TOHO Cinemas chain