In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, while governments in many countries issued mandatory lockdown orders backed by penalties for non-compliance, Japan’s did not. In March 2020, the Diet amended the infectious disease control law to add COVID-19 to the diseases covered but did not provide penalties for non-compliance with government requests to limit activities. International news organisations reported that Japan’s Constitution ‘would need to be amended to impose and enforce a lockdown’.
COVID-19 is a weak excuse for changing Japan’s Constitution (eastasiaforum.org)