Japan is expected to expand a state of emergency to cover the island of Okinawa, and it is also set to approve Moderna and AstraZeneca's vaccines after health regulators' approval a day earlier.
The country kicked off its vaccination campaign in mid-February using Pfizer Inc's vaccine but has so far inoculated just 3.9 percent of its population - the slowest rate among the world's larger, rich countries.
According to media reports on Friday, the government was likely to wait to use AstraZeneca's shots for the time being due to concerns over blood clots, despite the expected approval of the two additional vaccines.
Japan has arranged to buy 120 million doses of the British-Swedish drugmaker's vaccine. Japan has so far vaccinated just 4.1 million of its population.
some other Group of Seven (G7) countries that are beginning to end pandemic-busting lockdown measures, much of Japan remains under emergency curbs amid a fourth wave of the virus. On Friday, medical experts approved the government's proposal to add the southern prefecture of Okinawa to its list of prefectures subject to the strictest emergency measures.
The state of emergency for Okinawa, widely expected to be formalized later on Friday, would run for about a month from Sunday through June 20, economy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said, beyond the May 31 end of the other nine. The move would mark the third consecutive week that Japan has expanded the state of emergency.
Japan has so far recorded about 695,000 novel coronavirus infections and 12,000 COVID-19 deaths - much fewer than many countries - but its medical system is increasingly strained by a spike in more infectious variants of the virus.
Israel-Gaza conflict: World leaders hail ceasefire after 11 days of attacks, Palestinians celebrate
Italy Presents New Stimulus Plan: Approves 40 Bn Euro Package to Support Economy
European Union signs the third contract with BioNTech-Pfizer for 1.8 bn vaccine doses