Japan applies tougher quarantine rules to India, Greece, Romania, 4 U.S. states

How do they know, where American are from, we do not have a National ID card, American are allowed to travel state to state without ID

I think I read this comment on Twitter, but I think there is some truth in it. The government is doing this to try and curtail people from traveling abroad for the foreseeable future. If they make them stay in quarantine for up to ten days or 2 weeks, nobody has that kind of time off, and they will give up their travels.

What a joke, how in the hell is immigration going to tell what state someone is coming from in the US?

Since this is only for Japanese citizens and foreigners with residency status I am betting that they think everyone is going to be 100% honest!

Next thing they will think of is setting up lie detector tests for Japanese returning from the US!

@Kyo wa heiwa da yo ne

The article says U.S. states as in the United States of America and not as you wrote- American !

Open a dictionary and stop being so pedantic. The adjective for people from the US is “American.” Someone from Ecaudor would be “Ecuadorian” or “South American,” not simply “American.”

instead of these ridiculous measures how about speeding up the booster shots and making testing more available? Shutting down borders and everything else is not the answer.

@Tomi

Did anybody notice that no foreigner can enter Japan anyway?

That’s not true. With the exception of a few counties in Africa, re-entry is still allowed for foreigners. The recent ban was on new entry. I called and confimed with Immigration last week.

I am seriously confused by this decision. Who is advising the Japanese government (bureaucrats) here.

@Weiwei

Immigration does not need to know which states people have visited, it is based on the origin of the flight like before.

That’s not true. Immigration literally asks you which states you were in. My flight in August originated in DC, but aside from the airport, I never spent any time there, so I didn’t include it on my list. Immigration didn’t mention it at all. It’s basically an honor system as other commenters have pointed out.

If the criteria apply to the countries having confirmed cases of the new variant, did Japan put itself on the list? Shall we all spend three to ten days at a government facility?

There is no point in putting someone in jail for two weeks if he's vaccinated and tested twice within 24 hours .

and have proof of vaccination as nearly all airlines will require anyway

Immigration does not need to know which states people have visited, it is based on the origin of the flight like before. People from Germany were subject to stricter guarrantine, but if you flied from Copenhagen no problem. So take a train and then fly. Useless but so it is.

What about EU/UK, which are the epicentre of all this MESS. Can they go free and further spread this virus..JP rules makes no sense. And on top of this GOTO is being planned, BITE ME.

Government of japan is absolutely joke. They are so racist and they do talk about democracy and blah blah things. but they do not follow. More country like N. Korea needs to develop.

On the bright side of things, it looks, so far, like vaccinated people are getting mild flu symptoms from this new Omicron variant.

@Simian Lane

Greece, Romania , and 4 US States. That’s hilarious. I wonder what criteria they use to choose places. 

I agree that they do a lot of illogical things, but this one isn’t so hard to figure out. Since the US is so large, they treat each state as a country. The 4 added to the list were the first 4 states to report they found Omicron cases. More have since followed, so I expect the list to expand as it did every few days when Delta was the main concern.

@Shogun36

What a random list of US States.

To the people calling it a random list of states: Do you not follow the news much??? These 4 states were the first 4 to announce that they found Omicron cases. More states have found it in the past few days, so expect them to be added to Japan’s list in the next week.

Shutdown, quarantine, add countries (and now states) to banned list until they’re all in it, fall to the virus, repeat.

Third pandemic Prime Minister, same infallible plan! It would be funny if we weren’t in the second year of brilliant decisions.

Did anybody notice that no foreigner can enter Japan anyway?

Or is this quarantine for Ghosts?

WeiWeiToday  08:33 am JST

Immigration does not need to know which states people have visited, it is based on the origin of the flight like before. People from Germany were subject to stricter guarrantine, but if you flied from Copenhagen no problem. So take a train and then fly. Useless but so it is.

So, in other words, I can take a flight from another state to Japan and I'll be exempt from this? That's even more hilarious. There are other states that fly to Japan.

Yet more knee-jerk overreactions to a "variant" that has, so far, failed to kill anyone, right?

Just last night, NHK was quoting government "officials" on their worry that, should this policy be put in place, there wouldn't even be enough facilities available for these poor returnees and Japanese citizens to uselessly sit around in for days on end by the end of the first week...

But hey! It's the "optics" of looking like you're doing something that counts. Because...science!

That's hilarious, but I guess not much surprises me about the government. How would they know where the US travelers are from? Even if you do carry a US drivers license, it won't necessary say where you're actually from, especially if you recently moved. Good luck in trying to sort that out. @ Simian Lane - You're probably right or they put the names of the states in a bag and those were the first 4 they picked. Go figure.

What a random list of US States.

I’m surprised they didn’t choose East Dakota and New Delaware as well.

Morons.

It's not just Japan introducing these kinds of measures. Canada announced last week that all people arriving into Canada (except from the U.S. at the moment) are required to take a COVID test on arrival or at their final destination and are expected to self islolate until test results are available, which can take up to three days. However, unlike Japan, people are allowed to self-isolate at home or place of accommodation until test results are released. There are, however, a whole list of conditions regarding what type of accommodations are acceptable. If your quarantine plan fails to meet these conditions, you may be required to self-isolate in a government quarantine facility or hotel at your own cost. The only saving grace at the moment is, due to disorganization, the Canadian government hasn't yet fully implemented the testing requirement.

I’m guessing they will just go by the home address that is on the passport to determine if somebody falls in one of the states in scope. Sure some people will fall into the cracks of should’ve / shouldn’t have been in scope of the extra quarantine requirements. But percentage wise they will end up being right most of the time and that is probably all that matters.

If the flights aren't from the countries/states in the list there is probably the standard question have you been in these places in the past so and so number of days before this flight

Yrall. They don’t. Just make you fly in from a State that isn’t on the list and your PNR number is not linked to a domestic flight previously. If you must. I attempt to to give a straight answer but as usual your question is just attempting to be provocative.

How would they know where you are from aka living in the USA? Hmm. Japanese national, living abroad or foreign national. Not all that difficult.

What amazes, the expectation that when asked for an 'honest answer' the individual would lie. Or that there is a tendency to 'scam' - with examples of 'how to'.

@Zia and Esteban

How is it misfortune? This will keep Japan and the world safe.

Infected people shouldn't travel. What strange logic is this?

@knittyelf

More states have found it in the past few days, so expect them to be added to Japan’s list in the next week.

Good, very good!

Very, very good!

@ Yurral

The article says U.S. states as in the United States of America and not as you wrote- American !

However Ecuador is an American country but no its not the USA.

If your geographic education is challenged then you might find it interesting that Greenland is also the North American continent However its owned by Denmark.

The United States of America is a single country .

Americans include all 32 countries.