New figures put the decline in gross domestic product at a steep 7.8 per cent.

A contraction was widely expected, since the new data covers the period in April and May when an emergency declaration in the country was effective.

It is thought that a rebound has begun in the present quarter, which covers the period stretching until the end of next month, with economic activity gradually resuming in the wake of that shutdown.

This is in spite of the country reporting more than 1,000 coronavirus cases on a number of recent days.

In total, Japan has to date reported more than 54,700 cases and more than 1,000 deaths.

The period covered by the new data should have seen the capital putting the finishing touches to preparations to welcome the world for the city’s second Summer Games.

Instead, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in Japan and around the world, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were delayed by a year and are now scheduled to open on July 23 2021.

The Paralympics are due to follow them from August 24 to September 5 2021.

Their successful staging is still viewed as far from a foregone conclusion, however, with scientists around the world striving to develop a proven safe and effective vaccine against the pathogen.

The Japanese economic contraction actually set in before coronavirus, in the aftermath of a rise in domestic consumption tax last autumn.

Most leading industrialised economies were in decline during the months covered by the new Japanese data, which takes in the period when national lockdowns were at their most widespread and restrictive.

A fall in private consumption accounted for more than half of the latest Japanese downturn, with the state of emergency leading to reduced spending in shops and restaurants.

A dip in exports was the other main factor.