Experts on a government-commissioned panel approved lifting restrictions in neighboring Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama prefectures, and in Hokkaido to the north, which had more cases and remained under the emergency declaration after it was removed in most of Japan earlier this month.

Mr. Abe declared the state of emergency on April 7 in several parts of Japan including Tokyo, expanded it to nationwide later in the month, and then extended it until the end of May.