21 May 2021 - Health minister Norihisa Tamura gave his final approval Friday for emergency use of two more COVID-19 vaccines — developed by Moderna and AstraZeneca, respectively — in hopes of giving the developed world’s slowest vaccine rollout a much-needed shot in the arm.

However, British-Swedish drug maker AstraZeneca's shots will not initially be used while the government weighs whether to place age restrictions on the jabs following reports of very rare blood clots overseas.

The addition of vaccines comes as Japan aims to finish inoculating the country’s 36 million people age 65 and over by the end of July.

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