EU reinstates travel ban from Japan amid surge of COVID-19 cases

Little on this news on the Japanese TV news. A brief mention only.

I guess their pride was hurt. Ask of they don't want to be reminded that "Even" South Korea is doing better of a job...

A sensible move by E.U.. i think that every country should shut their borders untill this Virus clears off.

This is the only solution to cope with this virus and get rid of it.

Who decided? The President of the EU who the 400 millions plus citizens never even voted for?

It's mutual as Japan has already banned foreign visitors from the EU.

Wise move by EU.

Singapore dropped Japan a little over a week ago, after Japan stopped all foreign flights!

It is interesting that China remains on the list. The reason is that they do not provide evidence (i.e. empirical data) which demonstrate or prove they have controlled infections. It all seems to be on trust. I am not saying they have done a poor job (or a good job for that matter)....we just really do not know.

It is probably a wise move not to include Japan on this list as there is evidence of increased spread of the virus (actual data). Europe is also in very bad shape right now and I would not want to travel there (or anywhere overseas for a while).

At some point the selfish Olympic committee (Japan's and the IOC) need to see this and come to the hard reality that it is not feasible to hold the 2021 (2020) Olympic games and redirect all efforts and finances which are used to hold these games to helping people having a tough time now. After all holding the Olympics requires extensive international travel and would require violating such restrictions if they remain in place.

A total entry ban would be perhaps the most effective way to contain the spread of the virus in Japan rather than extending the SOE. Suga’s indecisiveness caused the current surge in infection.

@zoroto -

The Lowy institute did a study of the effectiveness of the response to the Pandemic. My country of citizenship was among the worst (deservedly so).

China was not included in the study. The reason is that China does not provide empirical data (number of cases, deaths, etc.) as the informatoin is not publically available (article below)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9197989/The-United-States-worlds-fifth-worse-response-coronavirus-pandemic-scientists-claim.html

No - we really do not know. Or do you have empirical data that proves otherwise?

@Zoroto - As I said - I do not know if China is performing well or not. There is no empirical data to demonstrate how China is doing.

No one is saying there is a conspiracy.

Zoroto, I don't recall ever disagreeing with you brother, but I really have to agree with Tokyo-Engr on this one. The WHO is now in Wuhan trying to ascertain the origins of the virus, and it has been reported on various news sites including here just yesterday that the CCP is deleting the social media accounts of Virus victims and their families and are threatening them to not talk to the WHO. Whatever is going on over there, the CCP is STILL trying to cover SOMETHING up. What it is, I doubt we will ever know.

@Zoroto - to perform the analysis the Lowy institute either gathered available information which is used to quantify the performance or asked for this information. China's state run media provides numbers but insufficient data to support their numbers and no further informatin is provided.

I do doubt China's numbers which are published by their state run media so if that makes me a "conspiracy theorist" I am certainly guilty as charged.

They ( EU ) have enough problems already. Japanese Europe lovers can wait.

Win, win for J travellers, all they want is a Hermes bag, so just pop down to Ginza or order online, and they can buy more with savings on hotels etc

Zoroto - Taiwan is not part of China...as you well know.

I lived in Singapore for a long time and have many friends and co-workers from China. None of them has ever suggested they suspect China hiding things on a large scale wrt to this pandemic.

I have no reason to doubt them.

Fair enough brother. You trust your friends and that is an admirable thing. I've personally reached a different conclusion than yours with the news that the CCP is still taking measures to Curb WHO movements in the country and muzzling people that have something to say. I don't personally think they would do that if they have something to hide.

I will leave this discussion at that.

I will too. I guess you and I will have to agree to disagree on this topic.

EU travelers are already banned from entry into Japan. And honestly, who in their right mind would want to travel to the EU right now? Same can be said for USA, UK, everywhere.

Vaccinations or not, the world is not going to go "back to normal" until unrestricted international travelis restored.

EU reinstates travel ban from Japan amid surge of COVID-19 cases

Europe is doing a serious job trying to control the situation by mass testing, making everyone work from home, vaccinating as much as possible with the current vaccine stock.

We will finally see positive and consistent results within the next few months over there.

“Real” results, not propaganda and hiding positive numbers through “not having access” to private institutions’ testing as we sadly see in Japan.

Naturally, EU key stakeholders are very aware of the mess that is happening in Japan and how out of control the spread is here.

After these news, I am just waiting patiently for another “Suga emphasing the Olympics will go ahead as planned” article within the next 72 hours.

Just wait for it.

They ( EU ) have enough problems already. Japanese Europe lovers can wait.

Even inside the EU or Schengen area, member states have been tightening border controls against each other rather unilaterally, without coordination. Non-essential travelling across member states are getting much harder or de facto prohibited. Airport arrival floors (welcoming Asia Pacific flights) have long been disserted, regardless of the travel guideline.

Technically the new guideline would cause no substantial harm. Japanese should waste no time feeling upset or shame for it if any. They better focus on what they are now supposed to do at home. Nothing lasts forever.

Naturally, EU key stakeholders are very aware of the mess that is happening in Japan and how out of control the spread is here.

So the EU also don't believe the numbers coming out of Japan as truthful ... fair enough I certainly don't.

Why is this front page news?

“Real” results, not propaganda and hiding positive numbers through “not having access” to private institutions’ testing as we sadly see in Japan.

"Real" results --- death tolls (about ten times or far more than Japan's) plus rising excess deaths (Japan reduced it in 2020) as we sadly see in Europe ...

.... But no tease, the EU now deserves a tougher control on Japan who has gone ahead to do the same. It's relevant and fair.

A sensible move by E.U.. i think that every country should shut their borders untill this Virus clears off.

Some of it will be schadenfraude, but I'm quite happy that Japanese can't go to the EU at this time. I would actually prefer it were the Japanese government stopping them, but don't mind if the EU one does it instead.

the CCP is STILL trying to cover SOMETHING up. What it is, I doubt we will ever know.

China engineered that Virus in their Lab and it was set free by accident or on purpose!

EU travelers are already banned from entry into Japan.

Yes, this is correct. Japan banned travel from Europe in December of last year, because of the UK variant of the covid 19. It wise a move. Funny that the article did not mention that fact.

@Modty: I agree with you

Better not travel to Europe - they have higher cases and you might just bring it back to Japan. The variant is from Europe. Too dangerous to open.

Yes, this is correct. Japan banned travel from Europe in December of last year, because of the UK variant of the covid 19. It wise a move. Funny that the article did not mention that fact.

Yes but did they ban Japanese visiting and returning for Europe? I think not, which is why the new variants are now spreading in the community. Just banning foreigners from those countries visiting Japan is not sufficient to stop the virus so I don't think it was such a wise move at all. Japanese people can get infected too with the new variants you know

Ah yes, one of the repercussions of declaring a SOE

@Zotoro

Taiwan is included as part of this list via China, or are you suggesting that Taiwan is still on the list of banned countries?

Taiwan is treated separately from China for travel purpose. While Chinese travelers were banned during the initial phase of the outbreak by EU and the US, Taiwanese travelers were never banned, from the beginning until now.

 the official reason stated was that Japan isn't being transparent and the released numbers do not match with the curve of people infected/sick.

Could you pls link to the official statement? Its not in article

Japan banned travel from Europe in December of last year, because of the UK variant of the covid 19. It wise a move. Funny that the article did not mention that fact.

Because it’s not true. Japanese citizens are fre

China engineered that Virus in their Lab and it was set free by accident or on purpose!

Anything is possible I suppose

Better not travel to Europe - they have higher cases and you might just bring it back to Japan. The variant is from Europe. Too dangerous to open.

Indeed, unfortunately. Most Japanese would never like to travel out there now, with or without the latest EU travel ban. Time for both sides to focus on own problems at home.

Sad, but reasonable.

Travel should resume everywhere as long as travelers take pcr tests in advance and upon arrival.

AND be quarantined on arrival, a person that gets infected recently (maybe even on the plane) may not give a positive result until a couple of days later.

PERFECTLY correct actions.

Who cares, Japan banned the entries from all west countries long before.

Besides, it's not like anyone in Japan want to travel to these countries where people are dying in mass numbers

Good from the European Union to make such a move,after all they did the same thing.

Also back in the Union where the informations are real they know that Japan is only having low number of infected due to very low testes.

This ban will mostly protect Japan, as the EU has massively worse infection and mortality numbers, and test positivity rates, aka under-testing