Is Japan Open to Tourists?
Is Japan open for international individual travelers? Are borders open as normal in 2024? What are testing, face mask, and vaccine requirements for visitors? These are questions among those planning trips to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and this covers the answers.
The good news is that we now have an answer to questions we’ve been asking for nearly two years! First, after reopening to guided tour groups, Japan reopened to individual tourists on October 11, 2022. In the year-plus since, additional changes have occurred to the extent that it’s basically business as usual for visiting Japan in 2024.
We’ve already returned to Japan, spending about a month in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and elsewhere. In various updates here, we’ve been sharing our experiences and what it’s like as a foreign visitor, what has changed, crowd conditions, expenses of visiting Japan with the weaker yen, and much more. The big one for most of you is likely going to be Japan Face Mask Rules v. Reality in 2024.
Those two posts cover essentially everything you need to know about visiting Japan as of 2024. The short version is that it is possible to enter, regardless of whether you’re vaccinated or unvaccinated, albeit with a testing requirement for the latter. There are no quarantine requirements, and travel is visa-free for the vast majority of people reading this.
Please subscribe to our FREE email newsletter and stay tuned if you are curious about how things are on-the-ground for tourists in Japan post-reopening.
In terms of the latest news, the current vaccine and testing policies ended on May 8, 2023. This is because Japan has formally decided to downgrade the legal status of the novel coronavirus on May 8, 2023 to the same category as common infectious diseases, such as seasonal influenza, thereby easing COVID-19 prevention rules.
This is a major policy shift and will relax–if not eliminate entirely–Japan’s intensive COVID-19 countermeasures, including limiting the movements of infected people and their close contacts. Japan’s reclassification of COVID-19 to Class 5 came after a panel of experts under the health ministry agreed on the plan earlier in the day.
The downgrade would pave the way for a normalization of social and economic activities in Japan, and should mean that non-residents are able to enter the country without PCR tests or additional paperwork. Essentially, there will be no (legal) basis for the current border protocol effective May 8, 2023. Of course, things could change between now and then, but it’s likely the border will revert to late 2019 status as of that date.
We typically spend a couple of months in Japan each year, and are ecstatic to be returning after nearly 3 years away. We are eager to revisit our favorite places, see friends in Japan for the first time in over two years, and continue creating this site’s wealth of free planning resources. We’re excited about this great (but overdue) news, but also go in knowing that things will be different, in ways both good and bad.
For these two-plus years, we’ve been closely monitoring the situation in Japan, watching several hours of NHK each day and reading multiple Japanese news sources. All of this in the hope for some clarity as to when the country will fully reopen and Japan will begin allowing international tourists to enter once again.
What follows is based on that research and fixation with the on-the-ground situation in Japan. We’re preserving this for posterity, but everything that follows is now (thankfully!) obsolete information.
Japan is now allowing foreign nationals to enter Japan for purposes other than tourism so long as they have a sponsor in the country. This includes business travelers on short stays, students in study abroad programs, participants in technical internships, both guided & unguided tour groups, spouses or children (and other relatives) of a Japanese national/permanent resident, others with special exceptional circumstances, and those who would provide a “public benefit” to Japan.
With that in mind, let’s cover how we got here, why Japan maintains the strictest among the Group of Seven developed nations, and what could cause that to change…
Again and again, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has said that Japan “will continue to consider how the measures should be by taking into account the infection situations at home and abroad, border control measures taken by other nations, and progress in the rollout of vaccine boosters.”
Kishida has also acknowledged that Japan’s border control measures are the strictest among Group of Seven nations, and expressed a desire/need to bring Japan in line with its counterparts. “This is the first step in our gradual easing of the [border] restrictions,” Kishida has said.
As for why Japan’s border is still closed over a year after most democracies reopened, that can largely be explained by the country’s apprehensiveness of outsiders.
For better or worse, Japan is an insular and culturally conservative country–a characteristic that is often valued by visitors. Not so much in the last couple of years, as this has been reflected in policy-making. Japan has vilified and scapegoated foreigners and had an overly aggressive approach to its borders.
Due to this and other policies, Japan has lagged behind economically, seeing slower recovery than the United States and other counterparts that have more aggressively reopened. Economic benefits of international tourists is one big reason why Japan is expected to reopen its border.
Boosting tourism was core to the late former Prime Minister Abe’s economic revitalization, and both subsequent prime ministers have indicated their intentions to maintain continuity with those plans. However, the number of foreign visitors to Japan dropped to 245,900 last year, the lowest since 1964, as the country enforced tighter border controls. Compared with the pre-pandemic level in 2019, it dropped 99.2 percent. That’s the sharpest fall on record according to the Japan Tourism Agency.
Economists fear a “double dip” recession in Japan due to the prolonged closures and restrictions. Decreased tourism plus falling exports, an increased consumption tax, reduced consumer spending, weak yen, and growing national debt. Japan’s economy has serious issues and inbound tourism was previously a bright spot.
In other words, reopening to international visitors will be important to the health of Japan’s consumption-driven economy at some point in the not too distant future. This becomes increasingly true as the yen weakens due to the Bank of Japan continuing to pursue its loose monetary policy while the United States Federal Reserve, European, and other central banks raise interest rates. Quite simply, Japan is inflicting pain on itself by remaining closed.
There are also signs that stringent travel measures, including the border closure, are having a greater impact on Japan’s economy than previously believed. This is despite Japan’s “Go to Travel” campaign that subsidized domestic travel, which was offered at various times during the last two years.
According to data from the Japan Tourism Agency, stays at hotels and other accommodation facilities hit another record low in Japan last year–breaking the previous record set in 2020. The total of guests at hotels and inns was 315.75 million, down 4.8% from 2020 and 47% from 2019. (This number includes hotels used as government quarantine facilities, not just leisure stays.)
The ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party recognizes these problems and realizes it needs to rebuild Japan’s economy. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stated that his top priority was formulating new economic measures and implementing these goals. The government will also take measures to stimulate and jump-start the economy.
Despite the aforementioned numbers, Japan is maintaining its goal of attracting 60 million foreign visitors by 2030. Additionally, the Japan National Tourism Organization has set 2024 as its goal for recovering to 2019 international travel levels. Both of these statements are reassuring given the current border closures, and indicate that Japan will unwind its travel ban in months, not years.
Against that economic backdrop, let’s take a look at the latest changes to Japan’s reopening plans…
We have more good news! Multiple media outlets, including NHK, Kyodo, Nikkei, and Fuji TV are all reporting that Japan’s government is planning to further relax restrictions and border measures with an eye to implementing the revisions by the start of October.
The specifics are not consistent among outlets, so let’s start with where they’re in agreeance.
First, there is consensus that the daily arrival cap, which is currently set at 50,000, will be eliminated entirely.
This is a necessary prerequisite for further reopening and the resumption of more inbound international flights, but this alone was not an obstacle dissuading most international visitors. While the daily number of arrivals was higher pre-closure, we assumed that 50,000 is the level at which this cap becomes immaterial with China still sidelined. Regardless, it’s good to have this removed as it eliminates an element of uncertainty and could have been an issue during peak travel times for the Japanese.
Another possibility is that Japan will allow individual foreign tourists to enter the country and exempt them from visas if they have been vaccinated three times or submit a pre-arrival test result.
This is where there is disagreement among the major outlets. Kyodo, Nikkei, and NHK are reporting that this is to be determined, with government officials still deciding whether to proceed with this plan or start with lifting the daily arrival cap. By contrast, Fuji TV is treating this as a done deal, using less ambiguous language.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reportedly plans to make a decision as early as the end of this week, according to the news outlets’ sources.
These “leaks” came after Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara spoke on Fuji TV over the weekend and stated that Japan will consider easing all three restrictions–the daily arrival cap, ban on individual tourists, and visa requirements. “We will review all three restrictions together. We have to carry it out in the not-so-distant future,” he said.
“Japan has seasonal attractions in fall and winter. We know there are a lot of people overseas who want to come to Japan,” Kihara added. “Amid the weakening yen, inbound travelers will have greatest economic effect…There are many foreign visitors who want to come visit Japan.” Kihara added that eliminating the arrival cap alone was not enough.
Kihara isn’t the only one who has been vocal about fully reopening to tourists recently. During the Bloomberg New Voices panel, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said she would open the country’s doors “tomorrow” if it were her decision. “Tourism is a big industry in Tokyo, as well as in all Japan, so this is the time to greet more foreign tourists by using this advantage of the depreciation of the yen,” she said.
Koike said that Japan’s borders would fully reopen soon. “The national border is under the management of central government,” Koike said. “As governor of Tokyo, that would be tomorrow.”
The yen has fallen to a 24-year low of ¥144 to the dollar, likely contributing to the sense of urgency in the aforementioned interviews.
Japan eased its border restrictions last week, raising the daily arrival cap from 20,000 to 50,000 and dropping the requirement for pre-arrival PCR testing for vaccinated travelers.
Japan also began allowing unguided tours, meaning ones not accompanied by tour conductors. This is specifically for “unguided tour groups” or “non-escorted visitors on package tours” and not individual tourists.
In Unguided Tours in Japan – Reopening Phase Rules, we cover what this entails and the recently-released guidelines and FAQ for these tours. Prior to those guidelines being released, we speculated on how this would work given basic logic and past precedent with prior groups who had been allowed to enter Japan. We were wrong–the unguided tours offered two steps forward but one step backwards.
We mention this in part to own past mistakes, but also as a cautionary tale. While it certainly sounds like the end is near for the Japan travel ban, it’s premature to have a high degree of confidence.
Kishida’s government has been trying to take advantage of the weak yen and accelerate growth by attracting more foreign visitors. It thus stands to reason that opening to individual tourists necessarily needs to occur–that raising the entry cap will do nothing in furtherance of their stated goal. However, as we have seen time and time again, the patently obvious conclusion often is not the outcome reached by Japan.
Moreover, how this played out with Japan’s last announcement is also instructive.
On August 23, specifics of the September relaxation measures were leaked to the same media outlets. At that time, it was unclear whether unguided tourists would be allowed to enter. On August 31, Kishida made an official announcement encompassing all of the rumored changes, including unguided tourists. (It took a few more days for the guidelines to be released, and the clarifying FAQ is still being updated.)
While presenting the above as a cautionary tale against optimism or over reliance on logic when assessing Japan’s decisions, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. (I’m sorry, I can’t help myself. Like a moth to a flame.)
First, there’s already the realization that unguided tours–like guided tours before them–will not move the needle on inbound tourism in any meaningful way. It’s another symbolic measure, and coming at a time when an increasing number of international visitors have already moved on to other destinations and pent-up demand has begun fizzling out. The number of people anxiously awaiting Japan’s reopening is shrinking, not growing.
Second, there’s awareness within the Kishida administration that the window of opportunity to reopen the border is closing. This is something we’ve pointed out in our best and worst case scenarios in prior updates, but there’s only a limited amount of time between waves.
Over two years into this, the seasonality of COVID transmission is well-established. Cases are currently in freefall and will continue decreasing next month before bottoming out sometime between late October and early November. There will be a winter resurgence. It could start as soon as late November, but is more likely in December.
Reopening to individual tourists in October presents minimal (political) risk and maximum (economic) upside. Public opinion polls show that most voters have already moved on from COVID to assorted scandals; the minority who still care will see no immediate increase in cases correlating with the border reopening.
Frankly, the miscalculation here by the Kishida administration is thinking that this will have an immediate impact on inbound travel. Those reading regular updates on Japan’s reopening are not representative of international travelers at large. Most people need months of time between booking and traveling; very few plan and take last-minute trips–especially international ones.
Obviously, the easing has to occur at some point and this lag will always play out, but the notion that this moves the needle for fall is misguided. Autumn is already a lost cause. At best, this helps with winter. More likely, the impact won’t be fully felt until next year’s cherry blossom season.
One wildcard is the downgrade of COVID’s legal status. Several recent updates have centered around Japan’s internal debate over whether to strip COVID-19 of its special status and downgrade it to the same level as the flu in Japan’s infectious disease categories.
It’s been our perspective that this was a necessary prerequisite to welcoming individual tourists as there would no longer be a need for a responsible receiving party to monitor travelers and act as a liaison for infected individuals. Given that none of the recent reports have even mentioned COVID’s status in regard to reopening, it’s possible our perspective was wrong. Or, that this barrier does still exist and Japan will have to create a “solution” for it (travel insurance?) for individual tourists. Either way, that’s something to continue keeping in mind.
Also as previously mentioned, recent poll data also shows the public is now far less concerned with COVID than the economy, Unification Church scandal, Abe’s state funeral, and other issues. It’s entirely possible that Kishida sees this polling and his sagging approval numbers and realizes that it’s time to move forward. That there’s more upside than downside risk in reopening and encouraging more economic activity.
As we’ve stressed repeatedly, Japan’s populace has been among the most cautious in the world with regard to COVID-19. Human behavior and sentiment don’t change overnight, even if it’s economically advantageous and objectively safer to do so. Statements by politicians and medical advisors, gradual border relaxation measures, and other changes could be interpreted as Japan laying the groundwork for a resumption of normalcy and the country’s eventual reopening. It now appears that the time is here–or coming very soon.
With all of this said, I’ll present my revised best, worst, and base-case scenarios for Japan’s reopening to individual tourists…
Let’s start with the best-case scenario. This assumes that Japan downgrades COVID-19 from its special status to Category 5 literally any day now or that this is not a necessary prerequisite to an individual tourist reopening. (With the possible workaround of travel insurance or some other awkward “fix.”)
Critically, this would eliminate the legal requirement of a responsible receiving party for visitors to Japan. In such a scenario, the borders could almost immediately return to their normal pre-closure status in early October. With this, the visa exemption would be reinstated, making that a non-issue. The arrivals cap would also be eliminated in this scenario.
Then there’s the middle ground or base case. This is now the same as the best-case scenario. In short, the early October reopening is not just our most optimistic view–it’s now what we expect to happen.
To differentiate the two, I’ll also allow for a middle ground possibility of a bifurcated decision with the individual tourist reopening a few weeks after the entry cap elimination. Let’s say that happens in early November.
This is would allow a bit of wiggle room for Japan’s slow and belabored decision-making process that involves a lot of “careful consideration” and “evaluating the situation.” If anything has been well-established during the last two-plus years, it’s that inaction is Japan’s baseline, and anything that does happen occurs gradually and in stages.
Finally, the worst-case scenario is that Japan instead opts to revive its “Go to Travel” campaign just in time for fall colors season, and uses that to buoy the tourism sector through December. It’s possible the country views this as sufficient for tourism businesses to stave off bankruptcy or other financial hardship for another few months.
If/when there’s another winter resurgence in cases, the reopening can would effectively be kicked down the road for a few more months. That would mean individual tourists would not be welcomed back to Japan until sometime in the first half of 2023. I’m inclined to say Spring 2023, but it’s easy to envision a worst-case that isn’t until summer.
Our view is that the worst-case scenario is now highly unlikely. Japan relaxed its border measures earlier in September while still being #1 in the world for new cases. This indicates that Japan is finally ready to move forward and sets the precedent for future changes during waves. Who knows–it still may take until early 2023 to fully downgrade the legal status of COVID. But whatever winter wave occurs (and one will happen), that’s unlikely to be an obstacle to reopening progress, as was the case last year.
With all of that in mind, we remain cautiously optimistic that individual tourists will be allowed to enter Japan sooner rather than later. The political and economic appetite for fully relaxation now clearly exists, and there’s a vocal chorus of politicians in Japan–including those who were previously in favor of closed borders–championing reopening. It’s now the popular position being advanced publicly by politicians, not just being advocated by Keidanren or Japan’s business lobby.
Japan fully reopening in full is all but inevitable at this point. It will happen soon. The end is near.
It’s thus our view that Japan reopening in some capacity to individual tourists in October is a very realistic scenario. As improbable as it might’ve seemed even a week ago, Japan welcoming back international visitors who are not part of tours (guided or unguided) sometime before November is likely. It’s pretty clear the government is focused on moving forward. As frustrating as this whole process has been, Japan is not still (completely) stuck in March 2020.
As always, Japan is cautious and conservative, with a slow and belabored decision-making process that often embodies “analysis paralysis” and usually defies logic. That’s a wild card that could further extend any timeline. However, Japan is now joining the rest of the world as people are ready to move on with life.
We’ll keep watching the news and keep you posted if/when there are further developments about Japan reopening and allowing entry to travelers from the United States, Canada, Europe, and beyond. Again, if you’d like to be notified as soon as more details are released or rumored, subscribe to our free email newsletter for ongoing updates and alerts:
If you’re planning a visit to Japan, our recommendation at this point is to target sometime in November at the earliest. In our view, koyo (autumn leaves) season is a good bet, and that takes place from mid-November through December. That’s simply a good time to visit Japan and, hopefully, the country will be open to individual tourists by then.
Speaking of which, check out our Japan Fall Colors Forecast & Autumn Foliage Viewing Guide to get started on planning your trip to visit Japan’s popular fall foliage cities, including Kyoto, Tokyo, Mount Fuji, Miyajima, Hiroshima, Himeji, and Nara. That also offers tips for avoiding crowds and strategy for visiting the best temples, shrines, and evening illuminations.
If you’re planning a trip to the Japan, check out our other posts about Japan for ideas on other things to do! We also recommend consulting our Ultimate Guide to Kyoto and Ultimate Guide to Tokyo to plan.
Your Thoughts
Would you consider visiting Japan later this year, or is international travel out of the question for you anytime soon? How do you view the news about guided tours? Think those will stick around for several months, or are simply theater to shift public opinion? Think the need to adapt and live with the endemic virus will outweigh fear when it comes to Japan’s reopening plans? Any thoughts or tips of your own to add? If you’re planning your trip to Japan, what do you think about these itineraries? Any questions? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
I have been following this blog since 2020. Thank you for your updates! We currently live in Okinawa and my family wants to visit badly. All of them have already had covid so even if they open and require vaccinations, they won’t be able to come. I just hope they can come once before we leave in 2023!
I must be missing something, but why does them having had covid in the past affect their ability to enter? I think that they’d just have to not have it by the time they travel (and be sufficiently vaccinated, have a recent negative test as proof, and possibly quarantine depending on country of origin) to enter. I haven’t personally heard of a zero-covid history requirement.
I still do not think 1st May will happen due to the Golden Week.
Considering Japan always cautious and slow approach, I do not think they will reopen for tourists at the same time where the japanese will be traveling and moving like crazy in what’s probably their most sacred holiday.
While you might compare with HK and NZ at the good side, you might also remember the bad side: neither are set to reopen with “daily caps”, nor they receive nowhere near the amount of foreigners Japan does (hence why probably short backlog)
At the end of the day Japan hit itself so hard with its harsh restrictions ignoring how important their own country is at the international scenario that we might still get a delay until 1st June even with the pandemic settled and others reopening before.
My guess at least lol
And I honestly don’t even think they’d open by June 1st. My money is currently on July 1st as the earliest.
I’ve already pushed my trips from April and May all the way down to October and December, since my airline doesn’t seem to believe summer would still be possible (they don’t allow any reservations to Tokyo before October 29th).
I booked a trip to Japan for June 7th before omicron. I’ve got all fingers and toes crossed that June 1st turns out to be true!! 🤞🏻🤞🏻
Can someone please help me understand why people keep booking flights months in advance hoping to be able to travel? Cant you just wait until Japan opens to tourists then book? Is it a psychological thing? Fear of missing out?! Please help me understand.
I guess people think flight prices will explode lol
When I looked up last time flights were around 800-1100 euro from europe to Tokyo.
I don’t think it will cost much more than 1000 euro cause it never did.
That is precisely why.. flight prices from the US are running around $1,000-$1,100 right now. It’s not likely that flight prices go down much once the tourism picture becomes clearer. I’m in this predicament, and I plan to book a flight for November 2022 on an airline that allows change/cancel flexibility.
I also booked a trip for late November, I had to canceled the one I had for last year for the same date and hotel for the Shibuya area. This trip is about $200 more per person, hopefully I won’t have to cancel again.
agree. the price difference isnt a hell of a lot.
I book out a year in advance anyways for my award flights. Current scheduled flight is September 2022… who knows if that’s possible.
The other reason (now) is that fuel costs are going to drive prices up, so strangely valid time to pre-plan. Not that it’s mattered for the last 2 years…
September sounds realistic.Many Foreign Airlines will increase flights into Japan before Fall season.
I just check the Australian carrier Jetstar. They have removed the booking of all flights between Cairns to Tokyo & Osaka (important because Cairns is a Japanese tourist market) until the 1st of June. Looks like they’re drinking the same caffeine as you 🙂
My flights from the UK to Japan for mid May have been cancelled. I guess that’s that. Thank you for keeping this article up to date, it has been very useful. I will return to reading your blog if I ever decide again to try visit Japan.
Aren’t Japanese citizens allowed to travel out and back to Japan?
Kishida has unleashed the demons @ Killing Stone. Hypocrisy is very dishonorable.
(sorry, a bit harsh)
I am a Japan-born US Citizen. My extended family still reside in Kobe. Since I chose to become an American citizen, I have not been granted a visa to return to visit my family. Since the start of the pandemic, I have lost a couple of family members to Covid & old age.
Thank you so much for the updates. Great news this morning that Japan will target to allow all the foreign students in within May. Hope the tourism could resume this summer
What is the situation for transiting Japan, for instance, I’m considering booking a flight on JAL NYC>NRT, with the connecting flight leaving from HND>MNL in October 2022. Is there any provision for people who arrive at NRT and the connecting flight leaves from HND?
You can’t connect overnight at Narita. You can at Haneda. Also, you can’t change airport NRT-HND or vice versa at this moment. So you will need to book ticket either only transit in HND; or transit only in NRT but before midnight on same day.
There are many Limousine busses a day direct to HND from NRT.
I’m hoping my third attempt to spend two weeks in Japan as a tourist comes to fruition by mid- October 2022 as this trip was cancelled in both 2020 and 2021. I first toured Japan in 2010 and made a vow to return. I am fully vaccinated and boosted, and will gladly get a fourth booster if necessary! Fingers crossed. Thanks for this comprehensive update,
fuck japan
Keep your opinion and your childishness to yourself
Thank you so much for the update. We were in Japan in March 2020 when we got the message to curtail our trip and head back home. We managed to get compensation and have rebooked our return trip 3 times. We were meant to go out at the end of this month but have now rearranged for October. Fingers crossed that all will be open by then. Your update sounds favourable. Thank you. Keep us posted.
I was foreigner born in Japan and I would like to say Japan is beautiful country to live or visit. If Japan is willing to open for tourists they should be extra careful in regards coronavirus or any serious sickness. I pray and hope anyone from any countries to visit Japan should look after themselves and beside health is number one priority.
Sure, just like in any other Country in the world. Nothing different.
Thanks for your advise mate, I was planning on not washing my hands and sneeze and cough in public but thanks to your advise now I will take care and try to be super clean.
😎
I think it’d sad.
I want to see nice gorgous ladies go on dates with some if able. Since I am us navy man who lived in Japan on my ship
Afs4 based in yokosuka navy base.during first Lebanon war I did not get to tour my host nation so want to return as tourist see parts of Japan not seen before
I hope they open soon because plan to return to Phuket an Pattaya beach Thailand for first time in July since been watching lots videos about both Thailand an japan.my afs4 ship docked in Pattaya beach lots after our long Indian ocean deployment my ship did
Seven times. But last time in Japan an Thailand was 1983
You sound mentally ill, Michael.
Thank you so much for such a detailed and well-researched post, as well as all of your updates!!
It’s time to start booking for koyo season, in late November. Though I’ve lost much of my respect for the Japanese society as a whole (let’s be honest: nobody wanted foreigners in and Covid was just a great excuse) I still have work to do there. No use stating the obvious, but It will take years for travelers to forget and forgive this great injustice done to us during the last two years. It’s a bit like taking back in a cheating spouse: we know what you did. Damn it, Japan: you really messed up…
👎🤮🎈🤡
Kishida just announced raising the daily non tourist cap to 7000. If there are really 150,000 students waiting to enter Japan then the backlog would be more or less cleared by the end of April. Anybody have an idea on what the impact of this might be on the timing of the next step ie to open to tourism?
I’m not sure if the math checks out since there also many businesspeople and people with approved residency looking to enter. But hopefully they’ll increase caps further and begin to integrate tourism. Currently trying to decide whether to reschedule a June trip — nail-biting stuff!
I do not think tourists will belong within any cap. Tourists will be allowed again once any cap gets removed. And it will be a “welcome back world!” thing much like Australia.
Controlling caps with a huge flow of tourists would be impossible.
They will keep increasing this cap during March and April and with it clear all the backlog. With this + incoming summer + relaxation of measures + population boosted, 1st June seems more and more likely to be the date tourists will be accepted again.
That would be quite lucky timing if it goes that way — our flight (booked early last year) is for June 2nd. We naively thought Covid would be long-gone by then
Here in Japan no foreigner has been vilified, nor treated as a scapegoat. Just don’t be so judgemental, and quite spiteful, as you don’t live here, you just tour Japan. I must say, these last years it has been such a pleasure visiting places usually taken by hordes of people, at times I shall add extremely uneducated or flat rude foreigners. Japanese in general are also very resourceful, when no foreign tourists flooded their businesses they turned to reinvent them, and turned to their own people, which in return are now finally enjoying their own cultural places and hotspots visiting them for the first time after many years of excessive non sustainable mass tourism.
So the problem it is not the covid? This is exactly the unacceptable way of thinking that sometimes pushes someone to criticize Japan. You might say that if the Japanese really thought like that (and I don’t believe that at all) why not stay closed to the world forever? Waiting for a new Commodore Perry of course…
The world is globalized, Japan is no different from the rest of the world and moreover it has the highest public debt on the planet so the target of 60 million tourists per year was set by the Japanese government and not by foreigner “mass tourists”. Better do your homework first.
Japan seems to do things in the extreme. Your problem seems to be with the hordes of Chinese. I’ve been visiting Japan regularly since 1999 and just these past few years (since 2015-16) there was sudden surge of cheap Chinese tourists. By cheap I mean carrying big plastic bags with full of $1 plastic crap thats made in China anyway. Osaka was especially was so full of Chinese I just gave up. Most of the over tourism and bad behavior you are referring to came from Chinese and they came as direct result of Shinzo Abe’s policy. You need to ask your own government what was the rationale of opening the Chinese floodgates. Oddly enough I think Japan will fully reopen to tourists as soon as Chinese are allowed to leave China freely again…
You are right. Chinese are rude, crude, obnoxious. Could be said, not their fault, thats how they are raised, but we all know right from wrong
Chinese problems are so 2020, it’s all about the Vietnamese misdemeanour train now.
He means hordes of Chinese tourists.
If “no foreigner has been vilified, nor treated as a scapegoat” how do you explain that around half of Japanese people (according to a NHK poll from when the partial reopening was announced) are still in favor of a complete border closure, even against people who want to help the country (skilled workers, proficient students and so on…) ?
Oh my god. You are so wrong and laughable 😂 what the hell 😂 sure japanese are so happy to lose all that money. Haha.. 🙃
Money isn’t everything. A number of things are more precious.
How does that relate to this situation?
LOL “no foreigner has been vilified” but it’s such a pleasure to visit places without those rude ignorant foreigners… Why does anyone bother visiting such a xenophobic racist country?
Did you just not read the article about the economic difficulties? I think you may want open your mins a little.
It’s not worthy of a fully-fledged update, but I just saw on NHK that Japan’s top COVID adviser, Shigeru Omi, recommended shortening the quarantine period.
Omi said the time for quarantine could be cut as the Omicron variant of the virus is known to have a shorter incubation period. He said it’s time to “be more flexible” and acknowledge the realities of transmission.
While not directly related to international travel, this is significant for a couple reasons. First, the principles underpinning what he’s saying can obviously be applied to border closures.
Second, he has been the most conservative voice in all of Japan throughout this, suggesting many (what I would consider) draconian policies. If even Omi is starting to come around on loosening policies and recognizing the realities of transmission, that means everyone is.
Sounds good. I hope there will be changes after they catch up with their booster campaign.
And let’s be honest, if japanese people see foreign students/workers on the street they will think those are tourists too 😅 so literally there is no reason to close for tourism. Tourists bring the money in the end.
This haha.
For a good chunk of JP people, a foreign looking person in the streets will always be a tourist.
This is just a temporary measure to allow a small number of people at first so they can increase later and then include tourists.
I saw some comments on Yahoo and there seems to be kinda considerable support that the cap should be removed since no other country has that, as well as accepting tourists too as long as they are vaccinated and tested. (a comment with a considerable amount of likes said tho that only the approved vaccines should be accepted and not the likes of Sinovac or Sputnik). I think in the heads of most JP people, accepting gaikokujin is accepting gaikokujin, so if you gonna accept 5000, might as well accept everyone. lol
It won’t take long until they remove it I guess. But I wonder if they demand a 4th dose or the specific omicron vaccine for tourism without quarantine.
Just so that they are able continue to say “toughest measurements among G7 group” lol
That is good news Japan will now come to life again hope by much everything will be fine we pray for that
Thanks for info and all you say! I really want April for 7 days!