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Hundreds of Japanese students whose schools have been closed this week to contain a swine flu outbreak have instead flocked to karaoke parlours with their friends, club operators said.
Authorities in and around Osaka and Kobe cities have shut more than 4,000 schools, kindergartens and colleges after the first swine flu cases were confirmed Saturday and the number of infected reached 178 by Tuesday.
Tens of thousands of students have been asked to stay away from schools and avoid leaving home if possible -- but many teenagers are clearly bored.
"About 10 different groups of high school students came here yesterday," a karaoke club manager in Osaka, Yoshikatsu Ishida told the reporters.
He said he declined to accept the young customers when he found they were supposed to stay at home while their schools were closed.
Another karaoke club manager said: "We suddenly had a number of high school students after 2:00 pm yesterday, right after the announcement that schools would close for a week."
"All of our karaoke rooms were full at one point, and I'm expecting something similar today," he said. "I don't have the right to say something like 'you should stay at home.'"
An Osaka prefecture official said: "We've asked schools to close down and let students stay at home unless there's a special need to go out."
Asked about the students' karaoke bar visits, he told the reporters: "We'll observe the development ahead."
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(Agencies)
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據娛樂場所業主稱，最近成百上千名日本學生和他們的朋友涌入卡拉OK歌廳打發時光。為控制甲型H1N1流感疫情，他們所在的學校已于本周停課。
日本于上周六確診首例甲型H1N1流感患者，截至本周二患病人數已增至178例。日本政府已關閉了大阪和神戶一帶逾4000所學校、幼兒園和大學。
數萬名學生被要求遠離學校，盡量呆在家里，但很明顯青少年對此感到厭煩。
大阪一家卡拉OK歌廳業主Yoshikatsu Ishida在接受記者采訪時說：“昨天一天就來了10伙兒高中生。”
他表示當他發現學校停課期間這些學生本應呆在家里時，就謝絕了這些年輕顧客。
另一家卡拉OK歌廳業主說：“昨天下午兩點鐘后，突然來了很多高中生，恰好在通知學校停課一周之后。”
他說：“包間一度滿員，真希望今天還能這樣。我沒有權力說‘你應該呆在家里’這樣的話。”
大阪一位縣知事說：“我們已經要求學校停課，讓學生呆在家里，除特殊情況外不得外出。”
在被問及學生去卡拉OK歌廳消遣一事時，他對記者說：“我們將關注事態進展。”
相關閱讀
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流感入侵 墨西哥人過上虛擬生活
美國：創意口罩迎戰流感恐慌
新加坡發起全民洗手運動 防止疾病傳播
A/H1N1 流感英語詞匯
（英語點津 實習生許雅寧編輯） |
