She warns that the virus situation in the Japanese capital is quite severe and could face an ‘explosion’ of cases ahead of the New Year’s holiday starting tomorrow.

The virus situation in Japan remains rather tense as it isn’t showing much signs of abating while slowly continuing to gather pace in terms of worsening:

There are now more than ~37,000 active cases across the country with roughly 1% reported to be in critical condition.

As for the New Year’s holiday, it is a good time to be reminded that Japanese markets will be closed starting from tomorrow through to next week so that will impact liquidity conditions even more than what we are seeing already in the past few days.

In the bigger picture, the virus situation in Japan is worth keeping an eye out for in case it starts to impact the country’s preparation to host the Olympics next year.