7 countries restrict entry from Japan to thwart new virus spread

I can certainly understand why smaller, lesser populated countries, and island nations would do this. Literally speaking one case of the virus could be a potential disaster for them.

But I do wonder why Israel put Japan on the list

Japan has asked Israel to remove the travel restrictions, 

What good reason could they come up with for this?

With the exception of Israel, those other countries' probably couldn't handle even a minor outbreak so it makes sense. Whether Israel is being super smart or overly cautious, we'll have to see.

Panic is spreading faster than the virus.

The countries are Israel, Samoa, Micronesia, Kiribati, Comoros, Tuvalu, and the Solomon Islands,

what a pity ...

Japan has asked Israel to remove the travel restrictions, and briefed each country about Tokyo's fight against the virus outbreak.

Japan asked countries to accept products from Fukushima. After seeing how Japan handle that cruise ships they only give briefing to other countries expecting those countries to accept Japanese to travel to that their country?

There are over 800 confirmed cases of infection in Japan, with many from a cruise ship docked in Yokohama.

Wait, isn't it wrong?

Japan doesn't include the cruise ship in its count. But those who were flown in from wuhan are counted. Why the difference?

Looks like many countries are not buying Japan's count.

Misplaced prioritiy, more concerned about the image abroad than expending energy preventing the spread domestically.

Yet Japan is still allowing flights from other Chinese cities.

This is not really significant, given other Countries like USA, Australia and New Zealand upgrade it travel alert for Japan recently.

These Pacific Island nations are not equipped nor have the resourced to deal with an outbreak, they have to be more cautious.

Japan doesn't include the cruise ship in its count. But those who were flown in from wuhan are counted. Why the difference?

Because they are not counted. America is doing the same thing. They call them imported cases.

Shouldnt we then start restricting korean,iranian and italian nationals as well? There is no end to this if countries start banning in this manner..

drluciferToday  01:46 pm JST

There are over 800 confirmed cases of infection in Japan, with many from a cruise ship docked in Yokohama.

Wait, isn't it wrong?

Japan doesn't include the cruise ship in its count. But those who were flown in from wuhan are counted. Why the difference?

The passengers of the cruise ship had not yet entered Japan through immigration. Those who flew in from Wuhan did. The WHO and other medical sources all put the cruise ship passengers in a separate category called "other".

See:

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

Japan doesn't include the cruise ship in its count. But those who were flown in from wuhan are counted. Why the difference?

Looks like many countries are not buying Japan's count.

Misplaced prioritiy, more concerned about the image abroad than expending energy preventing the spread domestically.

How did you figure that? Are you basing it on anything other than comments by JT readers? Japanese news seems to include the Diamond Princess:

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200225_29/

http://www.news24.jp/articles/2020/02/21/07598350.html

Even the government page includes them:

https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/newpage_09690.html

Meanwhile, the below neutral site does not include them:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

So again, do you have anything to back up your claim or is it just senseless Japan-bashing?

I guess better safe than sorry, but if this virus takes off in a large number of other countries, are we going to be seeing an almost complete ban on entry for most nationals into most countries?

Hi, Micronesia as in Federated States of Micronesia (FSM)?

So again, do you have anything to back up your claim or is it just senseless Japan-bashing?

Not baseless Japan bashing, some media include do some don't include.The official government position and count doesn't include the cruise ship.

Fearmongering at its finest!!!!! There are only 158 confirmed cases in Japan, 142 with symptoms, 16 without. One death. The ship is American registered, send this numbers to the good ole USA. REPORT FACTS DAMMNIT! Its crap like this that instills fear and little companies like mine suffer the most.

@Geeliez

I guess better safe than sorry, but if this virus takes off in a large number of other countries, are we going to be seeing an almost complete ban on entry for most nationals into most countries?

We'll have to wait and see, but that's still a distinct possibility at this stage. Those of us following the (real) world news know that experts (that unpopular word again) assess that we are at the tipping point, globally, now and over the next few weeks. With great management and a bit of luck the outbreak might be contained in this period. If not, wide-ranging flight bans will be absolutely necessary. Cross your fingers!

Not baseless Japan bashing, some media include do some don't include.The official government position and count doesn't include the cruise ship.

And I already gave you a link of the government page that disproves your claim (And NHK news which basically speaks for the government). Below is the same page in English. So again, what are you basing your claim on?

https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/newpage_00032.html

Not the countries I was expecting, but it makes sense for all those small islands to isolate themselves.

Only 158 confirmed cases in Japan as of yesterday. More today. Not clusters, so it is in the wild, widespread and few people are being tested here. (The government is ramping up testing, but it is still glaciar-paced, compared to S. Korea.)

The cruise cases are not counted as domestic infections, as those cases were infected in isolation. They are included in the Japan numbers when looking at the hospital capacity, as they are being treated in Japan.

These countries are not even a flicker on my travel radar.

Geeze the headline made it seem like it was going to be some major countries.

The passengers of the cruise ship had not yet entered Japan through immigration. Those who flew in from Wuhan did. The WHO and other medical sources all put the cruise ship passengers in a separate category called "other".

Not yet entered Japan but Japanese officials could enter the ship and could dictate the quarantine terms.

It doesn't make any sense to me.

The Samoan Islands has just recently recovered from battling a measles outbreak. So I can understand why they'd wanna keep people out.

But why Isreal?

Fearmongering at its finest!!!!! 

Well, you're not the only one who thinks that.

“Is there any Cambodian or foreigner in Cambodia who has died of the disease?” Prime Minister Hun Sen said earlier this month. “The real disease happening in Cambodia right now is the disease of fear.”

I would imagine Israel is doing it because they have a big tourist season coming up with both Easter and Passover in early April. If it came down to restricting flights from Japan or possibly sacrificing tons of money in tourism, I'd choose the former as well.

why israel decided to do that?

why israel decided to do that?

I guess, because, as many have pointed out in the past, Israel does what it sees fit to defend itself. Whether or not that is a legal or illegal move in terms of international law.

Some of those islands got hammered by the Spanish Flu epidemic, so their caution is understandable

The more countries the better. Maybe our bureaucrats will start to listen and increase the capacity for tests and beds.

Japan has hardly any cases compared to the likes of China and South Korea (if you take the cruise liner out of the equation)... seems like overkill

Even Ebola didn't have this mad hysteria and more people died from that!

It isn’t as if all of our cases are being found - maybe between 10 to 25%

Just wondering if flights to and from US bases will be curtailed?

One must presume that this started with just one person and then spread from there. Even one undetected infection is one too many.

Ah ok, I checked Israeli news - I do read hebrew, they blocked all Asia outbound travelers / routes ( incl non direct flights) in addition any Israeli passport holder arriving on any already landed asia outbound flights is placed in automatic quarantine ( breaking the quaranatine punished with monetary fine and /or up to 7 years jail ) ..., main hospitals already suited for quarantine and army bases prepared if large quarantine required.

National airlines affected by flight cancellations will be partially refunded by gov.

and that only from 6 infected

well done actually , that is how you curb it from the start.

Maybe Abe should take some lessons.

oh and non israeli passport holders from asia have total restriction on entrance ( except for some countries) , they are simply sent back the way they came.

I am flying to Hawaii from Japan where I live to surf for three weeks on the 7th. Will I be stuck there in paradise?

Shalom and thank you ALex Einz. Unfortunately my Hebrew is nil and dire, but thanks for giving us info.

These other countries need to properly do their research. The balloon share of infected individuals in Japan is from the cruise ship. Japan technically still has less infected than Italy.

Thunderbird:

Even Ebola didn't have this mad hysteria and more people died from that!

Apples and oranges, my friend. Ebola is actually difficult to catch, if you aren't in direct contact will the bodily fluids of an infected person and it kills quickly, which is why it doesn't spread far.

You'd be better off comparing Covid-19 to SARS, MERS and recent avian and swine flus.

MERS was deadly, but hard to catch. Only people whose immune systems were already compromised caught it, and that's why it didn't spread far.

SARS spread quite easily because some carriers didn't get sick. And it spread within hospitals. (Ebola won't do that, with basic precautions.

This one seems to spread like wildfire. Lots of asymptomatic positives walking around. It doesn't seem particularly deadly for the young and healthy, but with more than half the population being over 60, Japan's hospitals could very easily be overwhelmed. Ditto Italy. Ditto South Korea. (And if it takes out 10-15% of patients in their 70s, that could be a big hit to the LDP members as well as their voting base.)

Alex EinzToday  04:14 pm JST

Maybe Abe should take some lessons.

Besides being far far too late for Japan (and many other countries as well) to emulate Israel's hardcore policy, Japan's utter reliance on China for trade and tourism combined with China witholding information for a good month or more as well as the Japanese government's lack of readiness and incompetance, Israel amd Japan are at completely different response stages at this point.

I’ll be taking my third international trip in March, heading off to the UK.

I hope I will be ok ...?

Wouldn’t Japan welcome a tax paying gaijin back into the fold?

I mean, this is where my health insurance is paid!

I have to work this one out before I go.....,

Perhaps they (including Israel) really wanted to ban flights from China but found it safer to ban flights from several east Asian countries to appear fair.

drluciferToday  03:08 pm JST

The passengers of the cruise ship had not yet entered Japan through immigration. Those who flew in from Wuhan did. The WHO and other medical sources all put the cruise ship passengers in a separate category called "other".

Not yet entered Japan but Japanese officials could enter the ship and could dictate the quarantine terms.

It doesn't make any sense to me.

OK, let me give you a real life example. Back in 2002/2003 I arrived on a flight that landed at Narita. The plane came to a stop and I figured we'd all be able to get off soon. Instead there was some announcement about some health something or another and two people wearing light blue medical suits and masks entered the cabin and checked for people, I presume, with fevers.

So the plane was sitting at Narita Airport, Japanese health inspectors came onboard checking passengers, but it was only after we could get off the plane and go through the immigration check that we were officially "in Japan".

I trust this makes sense to you.

Even Ebola didn't have this mad hysteria and more people died from that!

Ebola is spread by physical contact, not airborne. That makes it very simple to control once the method of infection was understood.

We have friends who work at the CDC just because of our home location. Met one for lunch yesterday. Big hugs, smiles from meeting an old friend. Was good to see her and catch up on family and things. Turned out she'd just returned from an Ebola area in Africa, but didn't share that until after we ate and talked about our families. I'm not worried that we have ebola.

So the plane was sitting at Narita Airport, Japanese health inspectors came onboard checking passengers, but it was only after we could get off the plane and go through the immigration check that we were officially "in Japan".

Good that you finally used the word officially but it doesn't mean that the passengers in the plane on the tarmac at Narita airport are not in Japan.

Micronesia is a region, not a country.

Micronesia is a region, not a country.

Yes, if it were big enough to be a country, it would be called Macronesia.

no we shouldn’t, Japan is not Israel. As world leader , Japan does not , would not panic

Diamond Princess lives again in Tenerife Canary Islands. If CV is confirmed there are literally many thousands of people of all nationalities who have crossed paths with the carrier from the airports, hotel, sites, beaches, shops he visited and they are now spread everywhere. Hey is this not the same as the Japanese carrier allowed on the train ? Not a good prospect in either case

"Good that you finally used the word officially but it doesn't mean that the passengers in the plane on the tarmac at Narita airport are not in Japan."

You do not enter ANY country until you pass through the immigration. Even if you land in that country.

This is the Law; everywhere, not only Japan.

Those countries aren't surprising. Most are small island nations, with less than stellar healthcare systems. Samoa in particular has only just got over a huge measles outbreak.

This seems telling Israel has as little medical ability as other small countries.

KittyGeorgeToday  04:46 am JST

This seems telling Israel has as little medical ability as other small countries.

I don't know about the healthcare system in Israel, but they are still dealing with Coronavirus being spread in the country by South Korean religious pilgrims which has caused a quite a bit of concern there.

Israel, little medical ability ? are you kidding? its a medical tourism destination, most doctors are russian educated top class pros, its just they have absolutely no reason to risk their population.Quite simple innit.. and what a contrast to Japan.

In a survey of 48 countries in 2013, Israel's health system was ranked fourth in the world in terms of efficiency, and in 2014 it ranked seventh out of 51.[2] In 2015, Israel was ranked sixth-healthiest country in the world by Bloomberg rankings[3] and ranked eighth in terms of life expectancy.

Yubaru Feb. 25  01:29 pm JST

But I do wonder why Israel put Japan on the list

Maybe they're thinking, "Why take a chance? Better to err on the side of caution."

And if that's what they're thinking, I can't say I blame them.

commanteerFeb. 25 10:29 pm JST

Micronesia is a region, not a country.

Yes, if it were big enough to be a country, it would be called Macronesia."

LOL, we better not bury our heads in the sand as that would be Macroamnesia

Excluded is India from the list. Also, also for Micronesia, it is referred to as the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) to be exact.