Japan Enforces Lockdown in Sakura Park by “Nipping Tulips in the Bud”

Caribbean News…
26 April 2020 3:21am
Tulip stems razed in Sakura

Flower lovers in Japan and around the world will have to wait until next year to tiptoe through the tulips after park authorities razed more than 100,000 stems to comply with social distancing rules and help control the coronavirus outbreak.

The officials in the city of Sakura, 31 miles east of Tokyo, mowed the tulip beds at “Sakura Furusato Hiroba” and canceled an annual tulip festival to discourage people from congregating after a coronavirus emergency was declared last week.

Sakiho Kusano, a city tourism official said that many visitors came on the weekend when the flowers were in full bloom. It became a mass gathering so we had no choice but to make the decision to cut the flowers. Japan’s tally of coronavirus infections stood at 11,500 on Wednesday.

Despite the absence of the pink and red flowers that usually carpet the 7,000-square-meter tulip gardens at this time of year, the park is drawing a smattering of visitors.

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