Some 80 to 90 officials will be vaccinated before heading to the United States early next month, where Suga will become the first world leader to meet Biden since he became president.

"It didn't hurt," Suga told reporters afterwards. A doctor checked his eyes and throat before he received the shot in his left arm.

Japan began its COVID-19 inoculation campaign last month with imported doses of the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech vaccine.

Taro Kono, the minister in charge of Japan's vaccine effort, has focused getting the vaccine to healthcare workers and those over the age of 65. Kono has said that Japan's Emperor Naruhito, who just turned 61, would have to wait his turn, but the 87-year-old retired emperor would be in that initial group.

Suga, 72, has pledged to have enough doses for the country's 126 million people by June, before the July 23 start of the Tokyo Olympics. Supplies have been trickling in from Pfizer factories in Europe, but are expected to accelerate in the coming months.

Japan had administered at least one shot of the vaccine to over 290,000 people through Monday.

Meanwhile, a rash of Japanese coronavirus clusters linked to daytime karaoke sessions by the elderly, including several linked to 93 cases in one prefecture, prompted a stern warning on Tuesday and calls for caution from authorities.

The recent clusters, which are spread across the country, come as the Tokyo metropolitan area is nearing the planned end of a state of emergency aimed at curbing the latest wave of coronavirus cases. The Olympics are set to begin in Tokyo in just over four months.

At least 215 people have recently tested positive in cases linked to daytime karaoke sessions, a pursuit especially popular with the retired and elderly, Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said on Tuesday.

Ninety-three were in Saga prefecture in southwestern Japan, with ages ranging from the 50s to the 80s, but clusters were also found in Saitama and Chiba prefectures, still under a state of emergency set to end on March 21.

Many of Japan's karaoke establishments feature small rooms lined with sofas in which groups can sing, eat and talk in privacy for hours.

"We realize that under normal circumstances, karaoke is almost a salon for older people to talk and enjoy themselves, but in the current situation of absolutely trying to prevent infection, these (venues) are rather confined," Nishimura said.

"In my election district there are many places like this - narrow rooms where people are packed in and singing. They have to take thorough steps including putting up acrylic panels, good ventilation and disinfecting the microphones."

He also called on those in areas still under the state of emergency to refrain from unnecessary trips out of their homes.

Roughly 448,400 people have tested positive in Japan and about 9,000 have died since the pandemic began.

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