In order to understand the impact of Covid-19 on our friends and the schools in Japan, we reached out to current ALTs from Minnesota to get their observations. As usual, every situation is different and things can vary from prefecture to prefecture. Here is the first letter with a downloadable link of the PDF at the bottom:

Hi,

I hope this finds the right person. I can only speak of my experiences
here so here I go. For me, after traveling to Korea I was told to stay
home for a week. It was during this time the announcement to close
school came. Life was crazy and it seemed I didn’t know what would
happen day to day. I know on the JET program you need to be flexible
and be prepared for the unexpected, but I never thought that would
include a pandemic.

Anyways after my 1 week quarantine me and the
other two ALTs had to come to the BOE. However on the last day of
school before break I had to go to one of my schools. Because of the
virus they didn’t hold the closing ceremony in the gym. Instead
everyone stayed in their class while the Principal and Vice Principal
talked over the speaker.

Besides that life here is not that different
than several months ago. As of now I am allowed to leave my apartment.
I was worried that in the beginning I would be sent home after they
shut down schools believing that they wouldn’t need us ALTs anymore,
but that’s not the case. People here don’t seemed to be too worried
like back home in the US.

Thanks,

An ALT