Foreigners with humanitarian needs will be exempt from Japan re-entry ban

Being a bit selfish, but I hope the travel ban to people from the UK will be lifted by November...

Planning to visit the UK this summer, but many Japan residents were refused reentry.

Does this now mean that they will allow me back in?

Fail.

All residents and permanent residents of Japan should be allowed entry and/or re-entry, period.

agree with tamanegi. for non-essential or essential travel abroad, those with permanent resident visas should be allowed to return to Japan. In my home country, there's actually an American family that got stranded in the countryside and was forced to stay, but for how long? I understand the pandemic fears but where's the humanity?

I expect that quite a few foreign residents need to be here to care for their school age kids, paying the mortgage, paying taxes, fulfilling obligations to employers, and all the other stuff than normal, responsible adults need to do. Or, I guess the govt doesn't consider us "normal."

Cripes, what BS....Japan accepts what 10 refugees per year and now they are going to allow foreigners reentry for humanitarian reasons? I feel sorry for those who really need it!

Because Japanese residents of Japan and foreign residents of Japan are being treated differently, it does not mean that this is a racist policy.

@nandakandamanda Of course you can go to the U.K., as long as you don’t mind spending 14 days in quarantine on arrival.

As long as they don't ban exit, I am OK.

Luddite, yes, and as zichi has said that fortnight quarantine (months too late anyway) will most likely be unworkable, but my concern above was will the Japanese government allow me back in again when I come back home to my commitments in Japan?

I have read of many Japan residents being turned away at immigration here.

If a non-Japanese is a permanent resident under the law he or she should have the same rights for entry and exit as the Japanese.

This murky case-by-case system that the Japanese system has set up is discriminatory.

And, oh yes, Japanese and permanent residents have equal chances of being infected abroad.

@nandakandamanda

You should contact your embassy :

Foreign residents can contact the agency, the nearest regional immigration bureau or their home country's embassy in Japan to confirm whether they qualify, the official said.

But if that is just going to see alive family/friend, most likely : you will not be able to come back.

special exceptional circumstances [...] include those in which a family member has died overseas or a foreign

resident requires medical treatment that cannot be received in Japan

Foreign permanent residents/spouses etc. can return provided they left before 4/02.

This is a good example of yet another lunacy coming from this government. If they indeterminately ban re-entry of permanent residents and people on long term work visa, they should also indeterminately let them stop paying taxes, social security, rent, etc. Never thought Japan would fall to China level on this one.

Yeah sure. And the number of boxes you need to check will be so great probably a whole two people will qualify. Same old same old.

They simply have no right to deny anyone who had a valid permit to be here or return.

Thanks Flute, but I suspect my country's diplomats will be equally as confused by this as we JT readers are.

Re last line of article.

Quote: "Foreign nationals who have been to any of those areas in the last two weeks are being turned away at the border."

Where is the 'border' in Japan? If you are 'turned away' do you wander off into transit, then?

"f a non-Japanese is a permanent resident under the law he or she should have the same rights for entry and exit as the Japanese."

Incorrect, if Japanese Law has similarities with UK Law.

I would guess they do.

Only the Right of abode guarantees unfettered entry: UK citizens will have unfettered entry.

Immigration Act 1971

At the moment this right is extensive to EU citizens too, soon to be a thing of the past due to Brexit.

Foreigners (except EU nationals) generally don't have a right of entry.

I have had it with the covert and overt discrimination coming from the Japanese government, to which in my time here,I have paid millions and millions of yen in taxation.

This type of discrimination does not occur in advanced counties...

Also, I ( before the lockdown) received medical treatment which was cheaper and readily available abroad but not in Japan.

How will immigration judge what treatment is or is not available in Japan?

Are doctors going to be on hand to assess the needs of the traveling patient.

Like the Abe masks, the non delivery of monetary aid and now this arbitrary policy make Japan look like a third world nation (once again)

Can't find anything on the subject in Japanese, but this article sheds some shadowy light on the question:

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/backstories/1107/

Big bloody deal. Are we supposed to be grateful?

What other major country is banning long-term residents from coming back? God help us if any of our elderly relatives pass away and we need to attend their funerals back home.

And why is Japan banning people from Hong Kong and Taiwan, the two places with the fewest cases and deaths and who send a lot of tourists to Japan? Although these two have done the right thing and banned Japanese from entering, seeing that Japan currently has the biggest problem in East Asia and is now seeing an increase in new daily cases. However, a Japanese with a HKID card is still allowed into HK.

Foreigners were and will be always guests here only with no rights...if you don't like it feel free to leave but your taxes are always welcome... Lol

I have had it with the covert and overt discrimination coming from the Japanese government, to which in my time here,I have paid millions and millions of yen in taxation.

This type of discrimination does not occur in advanced counties...

This is the very definition of "institutionalised racism", whereby the system does not overtly seek to discriminate, but by the way in which it goes about its business discriminates against a group of people and is not sensitive enough to minorities and not flexible or responsive enough to adapt.

In this case it might have a been a case of overlooking the foreign residents of Japan (and does this include Japan-born Koreans?). But not immediately correcting it suggests a Japanese concern that foreign residents are more likely to get infected when they are overseas.

Case-by-case just means that the "no" will be less public.

I guess if you have made a commitment to living in Japan there should be no problem as it is not necessary to travel abroad at the moment.

Practically speaking, what is the physical difference between a Japanese and Permanent Resident of Japan coming back from California? It may be that the Japanese is infected and the PRJ is not. Both, I presume, would be quarantined. Right?

Please remember that PRJ status is not easy to get. You get it if you are like a Japanese person in good standing: stable income, secure family life and good behavior. In short you are in Japan because you have established healthy roots. All that is shattered if you happen to be outside Japan (perhaps on business) when suddenly the quarantine comes down.

Experts warn that a next wave is more likely to come from abroad (with people regardless of nationality). I agree to the relaxed re-entry rule upon the condition of more rigorous inspection process in arrival floors at airports/seaports. There, manpower and resources should be beefed up.

I guess if you have made a commitment to living in Japan there should be no problem as it is not necessary to travel abroad at the moment.

What if you have family dying in another country? Your "commitment to living in Japan" should override seeing your dying family members? What purpose does that serve?

Japan....clear as MUD...….as usual....Thanks....NOT!

At some point of time you will find no foreigner willing to pay your taxes

There are people worldwide that have a fascination with Japanese culture. There will always be foreigners willing to pay Japanese taxes.

It's wrong and ludicrous. A mate sent this to me yesterday from Aus that runs a long time successful business in Japan. Agreed, anyone that is a resident, PR, pays taxes (which they shakedown like clockwork), has a family or owns (or works for one) a business in Japan should be allowed to come back (with/if a med cert perhaps). I am shocked this is not in the bonkers world headlines -- YET. Sign the petition and help. Cheers

https://www.change.org/p/内閣総理大臣-安倍晋三-日本に生活基盤を置いている中長期滞在の外国人一律入国拒否を見直してください?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_22440293_ja-JP%3Av3&recruiter=1106598109&recruited_by_id=9401d3e0-a600-11ea-a1c5-41618e28b976&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_message&utm_term=psf_combo_share_abi

This should take care of those whining about hypothetical situations such as a funeral.

I never understood the logic with this decision. A responsible government would provide an explanation.

There’s a clue in the choice of the word “humanitarian”.

Going to Spain and London on business to put food on my family’s table here in Japan. Humanitarian enough for ya?

Including Japan, I have financial concerns in European countries.It is relatively easy to manage remotely but now there are limitations which apply to me but not a Japanese.

Testing here requires numerous conditions to be fulfilled-why aren’t tests freely available to prove infection or antibodies.

Japan needs to change its simplistic mindset from ‘one size fits all’ to take account of this pandemic, as all of us are doing right now...

jeancolmarToday 12:16 am JST

Practically speaking, what is the physical difference between a Japanese and Permanent Resident of Japan coming back from California? It may be that the Japanese is infected and the PRJ is not. Both, I presume, would be quarantined. Right?

Please remember that PRJ status is not easy to get. You get it if you are like a Japanese person in good standing: stable income, secure family life and good behavior. In short you are in Japan because you have established healthy roots. All that is shattered if you happen to be outside Japan (perhaps on business) when suddenly the quarantine comes down.

If we must say things that are somewhat taboo, here it is. When a Japanese thinks of a "foreigner", first and foremost, he thinks of a Caucasian, which means those living in Europe or America. This means two unfortunate characteristics.

First, as per official statistics, many European countries have been hit harder than Japan, to say nothing of the United States.

This is partly because of the SECOND characteristic, namely, the lower than average (demographic) collectivist spirit. Tactics like voluntary compliance might (barely) work in Japan. They clearly don't work in Europe or the United States.

https://www.governing.com/Protests-Drown-Out-Public-Healths-COVID-19-Warnings.html

https://nationalpost.com/news/world/intentional-murder-careless-covid-19-spreaders-in-italy-could-face-homicide-charges

These two factors make foreigners, unfortunately, a high-risk demographic. Like it or not, a foreigner doesn't stop being a foreigner because he went PRJ or even a citizen. Arudou Debito is famous for getting his citizenship as he does that most American thing of filing a lawsuit...