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Japan to allow in 87 foreign students, making exception to ban

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The only G7 country that has a complete ban on foreigners. Not an advanced country at all.

17 ( +37 / -20 )

when a ban is not a ban....

13 ( +24 / -11 )

Indeed, a high figure. Nearly a full plane.

9 ( +16 / -7 )

How about parents of international marrages locked out of the country they call home?

6 ( +10 / -4 )

Looks like they are caving in to the pressure from international media and some voices within Japan, but in typical Japanese government way, by taking the smallest possible step hoping that it silences them.

4 ( +12 / -8 )

The government is certainly flexible: Different strokes for different folks.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

If the rules were consistent I wouldn’t care so much. Ban “non-essential” travel abroad for residents, yet let the US military and those with SOFA visas roam the world freely? Make an exception for 87 students? What is this?

Meanwhile I’m on a packed train with people sneezing and sniffling all over the place. No government is flawless and I accept that there needs to be room for mistakes and fixes, but Japan seems to just wing it.

3 ( +13 / -10 )

Seems a bit pointless continuing with the strict travel ban or restrictions now Japan has widespread Omicron.

3 ( +9 / -6 )

chinpo wo sasageyoToday  09:15 am JST

Looks like they are caving in to the pressure from international media and some voices within Japan, but in typical Japanese government way, by taking the smallest possible step hoping that it silences them.

LOL, nice sign on name! The shoot you can get away with when the moderators can't speak Japanese.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

I'm looking forward to having more foreign students in my face to face university classes, that's for sure.

You've been missed guys!!!

3 ( +4 / -1 )

"The crops are rotting on some LDP oyaji's farm!"...in the dead of Winter. Right.

Satire is by definition not literal.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

so only "87 government-sponsored foreign students" are students? other foreign students also paid to their Japanese language schools and waiting almost two years.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

“Now that Covid is running riot here and the ‘quasi-emergency’ coming who wants to come here?”

I think from reading the comments here… many still want to come here… coz they have been whining about the closed border for non essential travelers… BTW some talked about the US a military… they are are part of national defense and security. When did they start thinking that defense and security are not essential?

1 ( +8 / -7 )

Japan introduced the entry ban on Nov. 30 last year amid growing concerns over the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The ban was extended last week until the end of February.

The Omicron Kraken has already been released. There is little an entry ban or a 10 day quarantine will accomplish at this point. Let alone banning alcohol sales after 8 pm. Again, this is the government doing something futile to appease the paranoid public.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Tokyo decided on the exception "considering public interest and the urgency of the matter,"

Next in line are the "trainees" from SouthEast Asian countries to work the fields, construction and manufacturing jobs as the old batch needs either replacements or replenishment.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Seems a bit pointless continuing with the strict travel ban or restrictions now Japan has widespread Omicron.

" Seems a bit pointless" has never stopped Japan before

0 ( +10 / -10 )

Japan's travel/entry ban is not a public health measure. It is pretty much the only thing the LDP can do that is popular with Japanese folks (roughly 90% by recent polling data). So they're sticking with it. My guess, it will be extended indefinitely long beyond February, or until it can no longer be leaned on to rally public support for the LDP. How long did Edo last?

I can assure you, for most Japanese people, 87 is 87 too many!

0 ( +9 / -9 )

Not the low number of 87 is the joke here, but the quite strange kinds of their ‘important’ studies they are coming for. That’s not more than a little unnecessary and senseless media spectacle, not even really worth to comment about.

-1 ( +10 / -11 )

“It has stuck to its policy since the emergence of the Omicron variant.”

ahahah the policy is in place since early 2020, almost two full years, bar twenty minutes in November 2021 that allowed a couple of business pet to quarantine for 3 days only.

Omicron and science have nothing to do with it, the demonstration being that anyone coming from South Africa, which after identifying the variant and seeing a spike in November has currently ten times less cases than Japan (despite over twenty times more pcr tests every day!), is still subject to 10 days at a government facility and to be tested before departure, on arrival, and on day 3, 6 and 10.

If testing was useful to prevent the spread of the virus, one would think Japan would test its own citizens as well with such diligence. That 87 foreign students can enter the country shouldn’t be news in a civilized country.

-2 ( +6 / -8 )

Japan plans to allow 87 government-sponsored foreign students into the country

if not wrong, those students sponsorship is related to the mutual and bilateral agreements between countries.

They are not students who wanna come on their own and at their expense. For the later, many universities need the students for the financial balance. I wonder if the government gives subsidies as a consequence of the border closure

-3 ( +8 / -11 )

So other students are helpless?

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Students = cheap ( underpaid ) labor !

-3 ( +7 / -10 )

@kurisupisuToday  10:18 am JST

Now that Covid is running riot here and the ‘quasi-emergency’ coming who wants to come here?

Everyone looking for move on as they fed-up with the long wait.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

May be it is for American students only

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Not an advanced country at all.

No one who lives here would disagree with you

-5 ( +11 / -16 )

Now that Covid is running riot here and the ‘quasi-emergency’ coming who wants to come here?

-5 ( +4 / -9 )

The 87 students have less than one year left until they graduate or finish their studies and the government decided to allow them in so they can finish their schooling, Matsuno said.

so what?

If they really are that desperate to come, let them graduate first and have them find a job later.

there will always be a new crop ready to jump next year. And the next and the next.

-9 ( +4 / -13 )

Translation: The crops are rotting on some LDP oyaji's farm!

AND

The cops are rotting on some LDP Koban. they need foreigners to stop and harass.

Keep that xenophobia going ...

Don't worry about that. Like Corona it finds a way to improve and reinvent itself.

-9 ( +5 / -14 )

Nice.

Must be absolutely necessary, these ones.

-20 ( +8 / -28 )

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