Japan's restaurants, bars welcome back drinkers as COVID-19 controls ease

FILE PHOTO: Employees of Sasaki Saketen, a liquor wholesaler company, engages in shipping work of beer barrels as Japanese government is expected to lift state of emergency in all regions, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Tokyo, Japan September 28, 2021. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo

TOKYO (Reuters) - Typhoon winds and rain dampened what might have been a more celebratory mood in Tokyo on Friday, as restaurants were allowed to sell alcohol and stay open later following the lifting of the latest COVID-19 state of emergency.

Japan is cautiously easing restrictions that have prevailed across much of the nation for almost six months. New COVID cases in Tokyo totalled 200 on Friday, a sharp drop from more than 5,000 a day in August amid a fifth wave driven by the infectious Delta variant that brought the medical system to the brink.