SEVERAL hundred people without face masks turned up at the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday just before a case filed by anti-vaxxers against the government was due to start.
Their sudden appearance at the courthouse sent court officials scrambling to bring the situation under control with anti-virus measures.
The Tokyo High Court, which manages the building, advises visitors to wear face masks but cannot compel them to do so.
According to a Kyodo News report, a long line of unmasked people formed at the security checkpoint of the building's entrance ahead of the afternoon hearing and this led many others to complaint that they would be late for their court hearings.
In the lawsuit, the anti-vaxxers claimed that "there is no scientific evidence of vaccine safety. The effectiveness of masks is also questionable."
Using their website, the plaintiffs had called on people to come to the court and hear the opening arguments of the case.
It was reported that the lobby of the building on the first floor and the outside of the seventh floor courtroom where the hearing was scheduled, were overcrowded with those not wearing mask.
It was estimated that about 300 people had gathered for the hearing and police had to send additional personnel to be on standby at the courthouse.
The plaintiffs in the case are demanding that the government cancel the fast-track approval granted to Covid-19 vaccines earlier this year.
According to their website, they are also opposed to the government's plan to introduce the so-called vaccine passports.
Since the vaccine approval, Japan has so far inoculated over 60 per cent of its population.
Japan also plans to widely use vaccine passports for commercial purposes as part of its efforts to normalise social and economic activities.
Tokyo has been seeing a drop in Covid-19 cases over the recent weeks, in tandem with the stepped-up vaccinations.
There have been no relaxation of the mask wearing rule and people are still urged by the government to wear them to prevent the spread of the virus.
The capital registered a record 5,773 cases on Aug 13, just days after the closing of the Olympics.
However, Tokyo reported only 49 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, its lowest number in about 16 months.
It was the third consecutive day that the capital posted its lowest number of daily new infections for this year.
The last time Tokyo's new cases fell below 50 was on June 25 last year, when it reported 48 new infections.
The city reported 77 new cases and 10 deaths on Tuesday.
The tally brought the daily average of new infections in the capital over the past week to just below 100, or about 55 per cent of the figure for the preceding week.
It is the first time the weekly average fell below 100 cases since July last year.
Authorities also reported that the number of serious cases in Tokyo that required ventilators or lung bypass machine, dropped by seven from the previous day to 55 on Tuesday.
