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!
While you guys here are waiting for some “grand announcement” by Kishida and Co, know that Japan is technically open to tourism. Yes I know tour groups yada yada but as far JGov is concerned you can visit as a tourist and the hoops you have to jump through is your problem not theirs. Its very simple to understand but the problem is we are refusing to accept whats been staring us right in the freaking face: visa-free individual travel matters to you, not Japan. The Japanese can travel anywhere anytime and foreigners are able to visit as long as they do what Japan wants. And for those that post again and again how Japan is dependent on your tourism $$ stats don’t lie tourism is less than 2% of its GDP (this includes domestic tourism) and the main driver of foreign growth were the Asians mainly Chinese (who can travel that easily anyway). Also keep in mind keeping entry difficult for foreigners is politically convenient especially so for a risk averse fellow like Kishida. It really boggles the mind how some here keep overthinking this. Eventually I suspect Japan will ease rules for individual tourism but with some restrictions for many years to come including visa. Many of the younger readers don’t know about this but I remember first SARS outbreak in early 2000s and until very recently (as recent as 2019) Japanese airports were still screening arrivals for high temperature because of measures put in place since early 2000s. Japan is SLOW really really slow and that’s how they like it. If you are looking for pre-COVID jump on a plane and do-as-you-wish kinda situation you’d have to wait years. The genie is out of the bottle and no matter what logic and reason you have you have no say and I mean no say or influence whatsoever on JGov. Take it or leave it.
Oh look. Renzo writes another novel about how we all need to “get over it”. Just like he so obviously has.
There will be pressure before the G7 next year for sure, at least to keep justifying an isolationist stance. And attending another NATO summit should be completely off the table. Even if there have to be temporary bans on outbound travel every time they try to rejoin civilized society. Like the CDC suddenly lifting all restrictions in the US, science will eventually catch up even with the Japanese.
On the other hand, until the pandemic Japan allowed visa-free entry from 68 countries. They weren’t forced to, it was of their own volition to allow that. There’s no particular reason why they should suddenly decide to cancel all those agreements going forward. The same political party is still in power in Japan (LDP). They are certainly very SLOW as we all know, but I see no reason why visa waivers won’t be reinstated.
Its a different administration than before the pandemic. Kishida may have a different view on foreigners than Abe did. I believe if it was Abe or Suga still in charge we may be in a different situation than we are now.
What do you say, Renzo? Maybe Sally here can help…!
This administration is sticking to the same long term tourism targets as the previous ones. I appreciate being pessimistic makes things easier psychologically, but some of the stuff people claim on here is not based on reality.
Personally, I feel like Kishida wants to open asap, he’s just too much of a coward to do it now, as he’s seen his two predecessors be forced out by getting things “wrong”. There is no way his ‘new capitalism’ is feasible without tourists, Japan’s economy is too stagnant.
The wait between group tours and individual tourists was always going to be the hardest. Remember this stage was always meant to last 3 months even with the previous administrations. I still there will be at least one stage in between group tourism and 2019 style travel. Whether that’s restricting things to certain countries, daily caps, or only through visas remains to be seen.
I don’t think anyone here believes they will go from the current situation directly to visa-free entry.
Requiring visa from individual tourists will probably be the middle step. As I commented here before, I’m from a 3rd world country used to said process so that requirement isn’t new to me. Of course, the amount of documents and details necessary before visa issuing might differ. (we already were required to show things like our intended itinerary and salary/bank reserves)
The fact they implemented that eVisa thing only reinforces that. It will probably be extended to other 1st world nations soon. Also I don’t think they will restrict specific countries since keeping a color code list will not make sense anymore once the reclassification to “similar to class 5” is made. Just some countries will have an easier time for the visa, like many other countries already have in place like Korea with K-ETA.
And I agree that if it was Suga and especially Abe in power, Japan would be open in a very similar way to Korea. (still careful with PCR and stuff but far from monitored tours as well as more care towards reciprocity)
Well, the government has been paying my staff for the last 2.5 years, and I’m sure they’d like to stop that and start collecting taxes from me instead. Of course, my business is not the only one.
It isn’t even just about the tourism industry itself, though. The lack of international passenger flights means that we haven’t had a functioning international mail system in Japan since March 2020. For lots of countries, if we want to mail something, our only option is sea mail, which takes up to 3 months. We can’t send mail by air to Canada or Australia, for example. We still have airmail to the USA, but only by the most expensive express method, and even that is warning of severe delays. What kind of sad excuse for a G7 country are we if we don’t even have outbound airmail?
When you add it all up… the missing tourism dollars, the furloughed workers being supported by the government, reduced taxes brought in by tourism businesses, the damage to the accommodation and restaurant industries, the international mail situation, pressure from regional governments within Japan, plus what will become an increasing amount of international pressure, mockery, and shame, I have to conclude that Japan will definitely open soon-ish, and these measures will not become permanent, even in the medium-term.
I just canceled my trip i booked 9 months back for 10/29/22.
Highly doubt Japan will be fully open prob not until mid November.
Did the same thing, canceled for my trip for 03-10, I am going to Korea now! 🙂
“New cases are starting to decrease in some areas, but we cannot be optimistic,” National Institute of Infectious Diseases chief Takaji Wakita, who heads the health ministry’s advisory board, told a news conference Wednesday. “We are concerned about future developments in the situation.”
(I’m not giving the link – no clicks for a site that spreads alarmistic and baseless news)
Just how incompetent can you get? Same pattern for two years. These guys want the government money. Nothing else.
And since CDC in the US finally relaxed its unscientific, insane policies, this may help somewhat (though there’s the risk Japan looks at Germany’s completely bonkers proposal for the winter. That’s what happens when you put a Zero Covider, China-policies fan as a Health Minister).
Not sure why he can’t be optimistic when the facts and situation changes. At the same time, they’re worried about future developments that are yet to happen. Talk about being an eternal pessimist
And then, with their eternal pessimistic view and risk averse approach, borders remain closed for the average tourist, with no end in sight and last priority given to it.
Yep, let’s be real, as many people I know are being: Japan won’t open this year.
Almost the exact same things are said by similar “experts” in the UK, even after cases have come right down, and they will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I wouldn’t put any thought into it.
Japan Tourism Small Business Owner, I do understand and agree. And to the problems you rightly listed I would add the loss of soft power and “positive attitude” internationally. Indeed, many of us have changed our attitude toward Japan because of its incomprehensible discriminatory policy toward foreigners. I notice this attitude also from young people who are now turning their attention and studies to other more welcoming countries. This damage, which is difficult to quantify in the short term, is instead very severe in the medium term.
Rather typical of Japan. I want to visit my sister but don’t want to go through all the bureaucracy around “kinship visa”. Given the relatively free coming and going of Japanese nationals it is only really latest racism, not public health measures, that continue for closure for independent foreign tourists (or do Japanese believe they are uniquely careful about catching Covid).
Maybe it is just my inpatience, however, the covid cases are peaking and I just expected it to go down quicker. I feel like this peak can go on forever, even trough September, especially with vacation traffic, which makes october kind of off the agenda :((((
Cases are already falling in Tokyo, I believe. Hopefully the rest of the country should follow suit soon.
Cases have peaked and are going down, as expected.
“experts” have tried to spell doom and gloom again, but they were wrong (and as usual, no one will call them out).
Here’s the English-dubbed video for Kishida’s press conference on 10 Aug where he talks about the border measures and Covid. Skip to 44:40 to hear it
https://nettv.gov-online.go.jp/eng/prg/prg7833.html
Meanwhile, in Japan, life goes on as usual in the total indifference of society, which seems not to notice or care at all about the border closure.
Awe-inspiring. What a clear, confident speaker. Truly the face of the nation!
…On a less bitingly sarcastic note, as user “I_Want_To_Go_To_Japan” (and don’t we all…) mentioned in the other thread, calls for “the resumption of socioeconomic activities” and, indeed, the relaxation of border restrictions are not being met with the same panicked response as in previous waves of the pandemic — I think it’s clear that the proposal has gained an important degree of acceptability in light of the latest wave’s “relatively unapocalyptic” effect on the hospital system. The increasingly high-profile arguments towards reclassification only further contribute to that end; the resounding impression I get is that the COVID-scared general public and leaders alike are finding the disease to be less and less of something to make a big deal out of, much less make every sacrifice possible to mitigate — you know, as the rest of the world did months ago. (We should be proud of them for coming so far…!)
Moreover, anyone who *actually* “””considers the infection situation in Japan and abroad””” would do well to note that the resumption of “””socioeconomic activities””” [such as tourism] has had little-to-no impact of note on the COVID-19 situation in the countless countries that are open…whereas tourism-banning Japan earned the dubious distinction of “world’s highest number of cases” just the other week. But alas, we know that this line is nothing more than politically-correct script-reading to flimsily justify further “””consideration””” at press conferences where Kishida is ostensibly being asked to provide answers that outsiders didn’t already know.
All we can hope is that the risk-averse government recognises, and acts upon, the fact that this untapped source of cash inflow being seized upon will not in fact lead to an immediate PR crisis. I agree with users suggesting that the initial reopening to individual tourists will probably come with caveats and stringent conditions; I can only pray that they are not so stringent as to require constant location monitoring throughout your trip, but are rather focused on the initial entry…although I have my own biases as a traveller whose trips generally last between 7 and 11 weeks, ha.
Here’s to a full, or at the very least “acceptable”, reopening within 2022.
I and my husband would like to visit my son and his Japanese wife and new baby in Tokyo next spring, but I am totally confused about the requirements for visiting family, and whether or not I need a visa, or if it is even permitted to visit family. He has his permanent resident card. It seems like he would have to formally “invite” me and provide a lot of documentation also. Can someone help me with this? It is so confusing. Thank you!
He won’t do a thing until the cases go down significantly. Like with Golden Week. More than xenophobic, he’s completely risk averse.
Reply for Anita Peters ………
Not sure if you read my earlier comment …. but have copied it here in case not:
“We applied via the Japanese Embassy in London. It was a fairly straightforward process with a number of forms to complete and some documents our daughter in law (who is Japanese) had to obtain locally and then send to us. The process took about 6 weeks including 2 x visits to the Embassy.
Please make the effort as we had a really good time over in Japan with our family.
BTW we went on our third trip to the Kyoto Railway museum which was a great way to spend the day with our 8 year old grandson.
Good luck and hope you get over soon.”
Hurry up dude. I must go to Kyoto to take care of my house.
I agree there should be dispensation for ‘tourists’ that actually need to go to do something – either on personal business, or in my case study at a language school in Tokyo for a week.
Anita … hopefully by Spring you won’t need to apply for visas. If not applying for visas to visit your family in Japan isn’t too difficult. I don’t know if your in UK or USA ,anyway same procedure and not too much documentation.
You can’t apply for a visa until 3 months before your intended arrival date (ie) if you intend to arrive on 1st April you can’t apply until 1st Jan.
Go to embassy site and click on visa applications then click on the ‘simplified application form to visit family/long term resident’ .You can either print forms off and fill them in or type in using a PDF reader.
Only two forms and not a lot to fill in…names and addresses ,reason for visit etc.
Similar for your son .the ‘invitation letter ‘
is just another simple form to fill in .
He can scan his couple of forms and email them to you.
The difficult bit in UK is getting an appointment at the embassy in London to deliver the forms as they have to be delivered by hand !
The dates for the appointments are only released 3 weeks in advance .
My wife and I have an appointment in a couple of weeks as we hope to visit our son and his family at the end of November.
So don’t worry too much Anita , the documentation isn’t too daunting.
If you go to the Japan North West Society on Facebook and post your query on there I can give you more details/help if needed plus you’ll get lots of other replies .Good luck anyway
August 10, 2022
Press conference by Prime Minister Kishida
“Regarding relaxation of border measures”
yes. Well… First of all, in dealing with the novel coronavirus, we will continue to take the utmost precautions to prevent infection, and proceed step by step toward the recovery of socioeconomic activities. This is the basic idea of government. As part of this, border measures will also be eased so that entry into Japan will be as smooth as other G7 countries while maintaining a balance between preventing the spread of infection and socio-economic activities. We would like to proceed in this direction. However, with regard to specific measures, while taking into account domestic and international needs, quarantine systems, etc. I would like to make an appropriate judgment based on the infection situation inside and outside the country. Well, by all means, based on the basic idea of balancing infection control and economic and social activities, we basically want to promote relaxation so that we can enter the same level as these G7 countries as much as possible. I’m thinking about it.
So many words saying so little. Politicians.
All he seems to do is think about things…
meaning what? and G7 only 🙁
This literally reads like it was written by a robot.
“Basically we want to move in the basic direction of balancing out the basic balances. To proceed in moving in this direction, the basic idea is to balance out the economy with the social activities while proceeding towards balancing the basics”
Meaning there are executive orders Kashida can issue unilaterally to relax the border ? There doesn’t have to be a change in the disease law ? For the govt to issue visas again I’m assuming there would have to be legislation.
Sorry that is Kishida of course. Typing with bad hands. :O
Thanks for this translation. The current travel restrictions needs some relaxing unless they were happy with the resulting 8k tourists in 2 months. If he were to judge the infection situation inside vs outside, then clearly there is more risk of tourists catching covid while in Japan vs bringing and spreading it
That’s the same thing matsuno said.usual robotic speech.
He said word-for-word almost exactly the same thing in May in London, just over 3 months ago. But that time he even said “next month” with regards to bringing Japan into line with the G7 (which turned out to be a lie). This time he gives no indication of timeline at all.
It blows my mind he keeps harping on about “infection control” and “preventing infection” while Japan reports some of the highest levels of infection in the world. Clearly, and evidently, they are doing almost nothing to prevent or control infection.
I don’t know why the government just don’t say “We have no plans of further easing waterfront measures for the time being”, instead of this long nonsensical robotic speech.
Because I’m sure he is “thinking about it,” willingly or not, even if there are no concrete plans at present. Does anyone have the full Japanese version by the way ? All I could find was this : “As part of this, border measures will also be eased so that entry into Japan will be as smooth as other G7 countries while maintaining a balance between preventing the spread of infection and socio-economic activities. We would like to proceed in this direction.” Thanks in advance !
Lizz I get your view but no, he’s not thinking about it. No one thinks about something for 3 months and build no plan whatsoever, even considering their careful consideration and slowness.
You would expect the speech to at least have a slight change (especially considering the highlight of the latest wave with Japan hitting 1st in the world in cases) but it doesn’t, it’s the same.
No change in perspective, nothing.
We might get something after the Fall diet but I’m seriously tired of “oh they will do it after the election, after the wave, after the diet, after this after that”. It’s tiring.
I hope that PM Kishida is really thinking about it….. how credible that would bring towards removing PCR test requirement and restoring visa exemptions would be another story. However, recalling what he said in London last May, there is one “small” silver lining: when he said the same thing in May, many lawmakers in the Japanese government panicked by his so-called “radical statement” (even though we don’t think it is) and urged him to quickly qualify his statements later. However, this time, he has reshuffled his Cabinet, stated this in a news conference in Japan (while everyone watching him), and now less criticism this time around (people moving on with life + more agreeing to move COVID-19 to Level 5), I do not think he said this out of line. Hence, his words this time could be somewhat more credible than that of May. Of course, HOW will he do it is essentially unknown and vague. We’ll have to see…..
Remember “after the vaccine”? And “after the Olympics”? “After the Paralympics”? Good times…
At best tangentially related to reopening, but a couple headlines today caught my attention:
“Japan population falls by record 726,342 to 125.93 mil. in 2021 amid COVID” – https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/08/e05251057991-japan-population-falls-at-record-pace-to-12593-mil-with-births-low.html
“Pandemic delivers major blow to no. of new marriages in Japan” – https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/08/204718187dee-pandemic-delivers-major-blow-to-no-of-new-marriages-in-japan-study.html
These aren’t the only stories of this nature in recent weeks. Given Japan’s rapidly aging population, you’d think the country would be concerned about further self-inflicted wounds of this nature and would be doing everything possible to get back to normal to undo this damage to the greatest extent possible.
I certainly would not consider any of this “reassuring,” but it’s indicative of Japan’s current approach not being solely motivated by xenophobia. They’re causing themselves long-term problems, too.
OMG really? Leave it you Tom to draw a link where one doesn’t exist.
You are basically trying to say Japan’s population is declining because foreign tourist guys are not there to pick up Japanese girls in hubs?
Of course not. (Perhaps the “at best tangentially related” preface was not sufficient to convey that, though.)
I’m saying that Japan’s overarching mentality towards COVID is going to have long-term consequences for its own populace. This mentality manifests itself not just in the border closure, but also domestic policies and human behavior.
The point is that there are countless reasons why it behooves Japan to move on with life and resume normalcy. And yet, that is not what’s being done.
Another bad news, as always.
https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC088FM0Y2A800C2000000/
It’s behind a paywall but according to this tweet…
https://twitter.com/nyukoku_news/status/1556992663840116738
…part of it states “The government and the industry will be required to examine the effects of the two-month period and develop a system to prepare for a recovery in demand.”
Develop a system to prepare for a recovery in demand.
No mention of anything, just this.
How can one interpret this? Not sure but it definitely doesn’t sound a reopen to individual tourists whatsoever. Considering it involves JTB makes the matter worse.
No one knows what bullshit Japan will come with from October onwards but it’s not looking good.
As one of the tweet replies says, I’ve not seen this written anywhere else, but assuming it’s true, this translation implies that they will be preparing for increased demand from September onwards (preparing from September, not actually starting from then). Group tourism demand isn’t increasing by any significant amount, and their own figures prove it. Increased demand implies that there will be a change (i.e a new system) in what tourists they will allow, rules they follow, or conditions of entry. Perhaps either some individual tourists or just more/different group tours.
Some people think that Japan will suddenly open up to everyone, pre-pandemic style, but everything I’ve read seems to imply there will be a stage or stages in between what we have now and 2019 style travel. This seems like further evidence for that theory to me.
Also from that article:
“Hiroyuki Takahashi, chairman of the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) and chairman of JTB, said, “There are few countries that impose such stringent border measures. We should relax them to the level of the G7 countries (other than Japan).”
…
“The autumn foliage season was a popular season for tourists visiting Japan before Corona. There are also expectations that demand for inbound tourists to Japan will pick up in earnest in the fall once the infection situation subsides. Seibu Prince Hotels Worldwide (Tokyo and Teshima) is promoting the development of multilingual maps of the surrounding area and the switching of displays within the hotel. The JTB Group will extend the tour with even one exclusive tour conductor until September. The government and industry are required to verify the effects of the two-month period and establish a system to prepare for a recovery in demand.”
At best they will implement a visa system for individual tourism with caveats and restrictions so only those who are really “really” keen to travel will put up with it and accept all the inevitable hoops that needs jumping through. I never understood the comments here about how Japan is so dependent on foreign tourism and how their economy is toast without them. Well guess what folks, Japan is NOT dependent on tourism infact tourism is a miniscule fraction of GDP (roughly 2% as opposed to say Thailand at 21%+). Numbers do not lie. Also if you think Japan is under political pressure from the West to allow Western tourists think again. In today’s geopolitical climate Japan has correctly calculated and positioned itself as West’s ally in Asia in the face of the real boogeyman China so they can get away with a lot including keeping harsh border policy in place. There is no need to overthink this: you will be able to travel over the new few months as long as you are willing to do so on Japan’s terms and accept their conditions and restrictions. Prepandemic travel would have to wait a couple of years but hay no harm in dreaming right?
“There are also expectations that demand for inbound tourists to Japan will pick up in earnest in the fall once the infection situation subsides. ”
This part was interesting. Who expects this, and why do they expect it? As we all know, demand won’t pick up until individual tourism is allowed. Inbound tourists don’t care about the “infection situation”.
“.” Yeah I agree there will be some steps between what we have now and 2019.
Maybe removing PCR will be their next step (since it’s affecting the japanese too) or something like making the monitored tours “less monitored” and more similar to package tours from 2019, idk.
@Gav Exactly, but as dumb as it sounds it doesn’t seem like they are capable of grasping that. Many of them are still surprised the North Korea style tours are doing so poorly.
It seriously looks like they somehow expect the demand to increase by itself with some promotional stuff, dropping PCR, autumn season and decrease of infection.
Which of course won’t.
This focus on GDP when it comes to foreign tourism completely misses the mark. GDP is notoriously bad at estimating the worth of inbound tourism, especially in more developed countries.
Regardless, even going by GDP, it is one of the only areas of growth in Japan’s decades long stagnant economy. There is no way they will hit their growth target of 1.2% annually without it.
So yes, they don’t NEED inbound tourism, but there is a reason the Kishida administration continues to stick to tourism targets set be previous ones.
Regarding the other part of the article, it seems like JATA and JTB are hoping for further easing of restrictions in the Autumn, once this wave is over, and expect demand to increase then. They know from their own market research that the current restrictions aren’t popular. No advertising campaign is going to change that. Obviously, whether the Government decides to change anything is another matter.
Also, JATA’s own suggested timeline from back in May/June had the resumption of (some) individual tourists starting in late September/October. Both them and JTB have been pushing for individual tourists. I really don’t think they’re under any illusions as to the popularity of the current restrictions.
Thaialand just lowered COVID-19 into same disease category as influenza.
Hope Japan follows along quickly.
Don’t use that as a reference.
Japan has proven dozen times that it never “follows along” – what any other country does or does not regarding covid has no influence or weight whatsoever in their decisions.
Just booked our hotel for a March 2023 spring break senior year of college trip to Tokyo with my girlfriend. We’ve been planning to go since last year and we were quite optimistic fall of 2022 would have at least been open to individual tourism with restrictions of course; however, due to uncertainty we deceived to wait until next year in hope that Japan returns to a closer sense of normalcy 🙁
Looks like April 2023 to me.
The usual question remains: what is the reason for keeping the borders still closed. I find no scientific answers (in fact, the country ranks first in the world for infections) but only sadly distrusting towards foreigners.
They made it possible to apply for a visa online if you’re coming from the US or Canada: https://twitter.com/ACSTokyo/status/1556858183192297472
Unfortunately, looks like it still has to be only group tours for tourists: https://www.evisa.mofa.go.jp/index
I’m concerned this means they’re going to require visas for tourists for a long time, but I just found out about this so I’m not sure what the ramifications or implications of this will be. I’ll be interested to hear what others think.
I got so excited for a minute there, but I don’t think it’s news I want to hear, as someone who will only go to Japan for independent tourism.
This looks like bad news to me, to be honest. They have massively streamlined the process of getting a visa for Japan in the US (I’m guessing they will roll this out to other countries too after a trial period). However, is visa is still a visa. The requirements are a lot more onerous than before the pandemic when visas were not required from the US and 67 other countries. The implication of this new streamlined system might be that they are not planning to reinstate visa-waiver agreements anytime soon. Japan may become a country that will always require a visa for entry, even when/if individual tourism resumes.
I think you’re thinking too much into it. People need visas for all sorts of reasons and with a huge country like the US, traveling to a consulate/embassy isn’t feasible for a lot of people.
Here’s an example of how much of a nightmare visas can be. My friend has just moved back from Japan to the UK after spending nearly 10 years there. He is currently unable to get a visa for his wife as he has to earn a certain amount over a number of months to prove he is able to take care of them both financially. She is coming over on a working holiday visa in October so they don’t have to spend too much time apart. Once he is able to get a spousal visa for her, she then needs to fly back to Japan to file the paperwork and wait while they process it and (hopefully) approve it. It can’t be done in the UK and needs to be done in person. Now imagine how much easier it would be if it could all be done online.
I do think there will be another stage between the current group tours and back to 2019 style travel. Perhaps it will visa based system? I don’t think so, but it’s possible.
As someone from a 3rd world country, I’m used to have to get a visa for many places, including Japan.
So as long as they start accepting individual tourists again, for me at least it will return to be the same as it was in 2019, kinda.
The process is easy but i can see the panic of citizens of like the US and UK which are not used to need a visa to go anywhere.
Well this system is off to a great start. It says I need to log in to my account, but it doesn’t display the option to register first. Seems like a pretty big oversight to me.
https://www.evisa.mofa.go.jp/pdf/register_en.pdf
This shows there’s supposed to be a big blue button to click, but it’s so far absent on the actual login screen:
https://www.evisa.mofa.go.jp/personal/login
Either I’ve gone blind/stupid or someone isn’t doing their job.
August 2022 and Japan is still closed for independent tourists.
Time for Japan to grow up, become brave and get through this like other countries. Delaying the border opening to foreign tourists is furthering the economic woes and misery of Japanese businesses, families, and the dying tourist industry.
Yep. No good times here for me or my peers.
There’s a lot of hope being put in November.
I really hope that by then this almost 2000 comments blog entry will finally be buried in the past and Tom can return to its peaceful reports of the Autumn leaves while everyone makes their dreams true…
but I don’t know if Kishida and Matsuno want that.
I keep thinking what excuse Japan can possibly take to keep Sakoku once they reclassify covid to class 5, is that even possible?
Is it possible that Japan reclassify it to something “almost class 5 but not really” and keep the ERFS system in place? Thus still massively restricting those who enter the country.
Simple answer to your question: by requiring visa for tourists for foreseeable future. This way they can tell the critics Japan is technically open “but” it’ll be far from the carefree travel we were used to prepandemic. You wanna visit? Sure you can just have to jump muddle your way through the bureaucracy. And no folk Japan does NOT need foreign tourists. This is NOT a tourism-dependent country some here are so keen to stress out again and again. Also politically given the whole geopolitical situation Japan can afford to have its cake and eat it at the same time meaning the West will not hold Japan’s feet to fire when they have much bigger threat to worry about (China). Go ahead and continue to think Japan will roll the red carper to individual visa-free tourist any say now. No harm in dreaming right?
Booked Nov to Dec trip in Feb and wish no need to cancel like last two years. Otherwise it would be a hassle to cancel all the hotels booked. Even self guide tourists are allowed, I am concerned if one is tested positive in the middle of the trip and hotels of remaining destinations will reject your stay.
Flights booked for mid October. So hoping there will be news soon. My worry is the longer they leave it, if we still have to get visas, there won’t be enough time to process. When we booked in April we never considered they would still be basically closed.
As someone that was planning a trip to Japan for April of 2020 before COVID even began and has since reschedule for Spring/Fall multiple times… you better be insured. We bought plane tickets this time because we thought it was going to reopen by now. At the rate they have been going, my bet is beginning the reopening process in December, then it will be open by April. This is assuming they don’t find an excuse to close again.
I have planned with my partner to go in mid November. I have everything planned and booked since the beginning of the year. Your blog is really helpful because otherwise it’s really hard to get some info. It’s gonna be our first vacation together and we are so excited but I am really anxious that we will need to cancel everything. So hearing you guys being optimistic that it will somewhat open two months before our planned trip is easing my mind at least a bit xD
I am planning for late April – early May 2023 for three weeks in Tokyo with a group of friends to celebrate my new book. That should be a good time as the Sanja Matsuri and Kanda Matsuri both take place next year. I get to see Tokyo again and play tour guide for my friends, something we have been planning since mid 2019.