[9] From January 2020 to September 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that the Golden Week Festival will be cancelled the celebration at the first time amid the government declared the first state of emergency to prevent the spread of virus, which extended from 7 April to 29 May.

[citation needed] Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike urged to closed all schools, universities, and colleges, and as well as businesses in Kantō region were discouraged holiday travel during Golden Week to prevent the spread of infection.

[12][13] Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura urged closed schools on between 7 and 8 May, and businesses in Kansai region were encouraged to extend the holiday period through the weekend until 11 May.

[14] Also, in late April 2021, then-Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced that the Golden Week Festival will be cancelled the celebration at the second time amid the government declared the third state of emergency following COVID-19 infection surge.

[citation needed] Just two years after the cancellation of muted celebrations, Golden Week Festival has returned in Japan, which began between 29 April and 5 May 2022 (without the inssurence of a COVID-19 state of emergency (during the Omicron time in the first 18-month-period)).

[15] It has two days of live jazz performances with 300 acts and over 3,000 artists in 72 different locations in-and-around the center of Takatsuki in northern Osaka.

[15] The Super GT Fuji 500 km car race is held on 4 May and has become synonymous with that date in Golden Week,[16] but it was cancelled amid COVID-19 infection surge.