GMO Internet tells employees to work from home amid spread of coronavirus
Partners working at GMO Internet’s offices in the areas where lots of tourists from the PRC gather (Shibuya, Osaka, and Fukuoka) will work from home for two weeks.
Japanese online services provider GMO Internet is implementing measures in response to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection.
The GMO Internet Group says that, in order to continue business and secure the safety of all of its partners (employees), its partners working at the offices in the areas where lots of tourists from the PRC gather (Shibuya, Osaka, and Fukuoka) will work from home for two weeks from Monday, January 27, 2020. Further, the company instrucst partners stationed in or making business trips to the PRC to return to Japan.
GMO Internet is instructing its employees to refrain from visiting the areas where lots of people gather or making business trips using public transport.
The company explains that it considers the stable services and the stable operation as important matters in cases of emergency and has been enforcing a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) since the Great East Japan Earthquake (2011), regularly training all partners to work from home simultaneously every year. This enables the company to ensure the development of a method to access the internal system in a secure environment and the communication inside and outside the company via phone, Internet, satellite channel, etc.
GMO Internet Group notes it will promptly adapt to changes in management environment surrounding the Group in cases of emergency or natural disasters in the future.
Today’s report by the Japan Times newspaper says that the Japanese authorities have a plan to designate pneumonia caused by a new strain of coronavirus as a special infectious disease. This move will permit the provision of urgent treatment to patients using public funds.
A government official also said Monday that Japan will dispatch a chartered plane to the central Chinese city of Wuhan, possibly on Tuesday, to bring back citizens who wish to return home amid a deadly outbreak.
The Japanese government plans to have the plane fly multiple times from Narita Airport in Chiba Prefecture to Wuhan, as early as possible, pending negotiations with Chinese authorities.
