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Japan to lift COVID nonresident foreigner entry ban for 106 nations; tourists still barred

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Foreign travelers can be virus carriers, but the Japanese travelers won't.

Is that correct?

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Equal reciprocation is a must. If Japan does not want to play as a world member. the world needs to Isolate Japan and put a full embargo on Japan as prior to WW2.

Play fair or no play at all.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

So Japan, you ban the country that saved your ass & the rest of the world with vaccines and continues to do so. You're a real pal.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

I haven't really thought this through, but wouldn't it be fair if other countries treated Japanese travelers to the same set of unclear rules?

Most Japanese afraid of foreigners entering probably don't want to go overseas anyway, so they'd really only be punishing the more "open" Japanese. Also, I'm sure other countries are fine taking Japanese tourist money while Japan damages its own economy.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

tourists still barred

In other words, family still barred.

And before someone makes a false claim that this is misinformation, here is the government site that clearly states only "Spouse or child of a Japanese national/permanent resident".

https://www.mofa.go.jp/ca/fna/page22e_000921.html

My parents also checked with the Japanese embassy in USA, but they said they could only grant a visa if someone was ill enough to need care or my wife was pregnant.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I haven't really thought this through, but wouldn't it be fair if other countries treated Japanese travelers to the same set of unclear rules?

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Just because your country is being lax doesn't mean all countries should follow it's policy. Sovereignty rings a bell?

didnt know covid payed attention to sovereignty rules, Japanese nationals traveling overseas to infected countries can return to Japan , but foreigners in those countries cant come to Japan because they may have covid?

correct me if im wrong but do Japanese have some mysterious immunity to covid? does covid not infect Japanese nationals because of Japans sovereignty rules? .

There are countries that are doing better than Japan in infections per capita, why cant they be granted visas if they follow the testing quarantine procedures even if theyre just tourists?

Sorry but Japans science based approach to covid has more holes than a sieve

2 ( +5 / -3 )

gogogoToday  07:45 am JST: Articles from other sites have already pointed out there is no change. They just reclassified 106 counties but are still not giving out visas so it is 100% meaningless!

Me: The reclassification is not 100% meaningless; it just seems meaningless. This is a signal of things to come, just oh so slow. Incrementalism at its finest. Incrementalism is so frustrating when seen in the short-term. and in the long-term, as Keynes said once, we are all dead. Hopefully, change in this case is somewhere closer to short-term than the long-term to which Keynes referred.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Articles from other sites have already pointed out there is no change. They just reclassified 106 counties but are still not giving out visas so it is 100% meaningless!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

So President Biden isn't coming to Japan either. Fine. And stop all US diplomats going to Japan, and all other "exceptional" US citizens until the anti-US tourist sentiment is lifted. What's good for the geese is good for the gander.

I was a tourist in Japan when the travel ban was imposed, and made it back to the United States when it wasn't clear that all international travel worldwide wasn't about to be closed. I've missed touring in Japan and spending my retirement income there ever since. I miss the charms of Japan and my Japanese friends, but I am not missing the bureaucracy and anti-foreign devil attitudes that seem to be so pervasive in these travel policies. And now that I can spend even more and things are cheaper, it is still hard to convince myself that those Japanese grapes are sour.

Sigh, I miss touring around rural Japan. Soon I will be too old. This has been a long two years. Condolences to all those who are afraid to travel abroad to visit family or who can't bring family to Japan for visits or go and visit friends in Japan. Looking forward to the travel bans to ease up.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

So no change ?

8 ( +9 / -1 )

I want to go see my dad

6 ( +10 / -4 )

Realistically, the tourism situation is not going to change until the PCR test on arrival is eliminated.... There is no way Japan has the resources to test tourism-level numbers on arrival, or to quarantine those found positive, so tourists will not be let in so long as those are the rules.

Agreed.

Pre-covid, over 100,000 people entered Japan every day, mainly through Tokyo. Yet at the worst of the worst in the pandemic during the past 2 years, Tokyo has only been able to test a one day maximum of just over 30,000, and that was only 2 months ago in early February.

If Japan hasn't ramped up testing by now for its own sick citizens, its beyond unlikely they will do so in order to accommodate visiting gaijin tourists.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

zichi: Saudi Arabia is not in Asia.....

Well, unless they've moved it since I last visited the Kingdom, it certainly is in Asia.

22 ( +24 / -2 )

Before the pandemic started the top countries the foreign tourists in Japan from are China, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Unless these countries have dropped quarantine for returned travelers, which IMO I do not think it is going to happen for some time. Even Japan has scrapped all covid restrictions for tourist. The foreign tourist number will be no way near that high in the past.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

I just hope Japan relents and lets tourists visit soon

10 ( +13 / -3 )

Do they Not realize that Saudi Arabia is also Asia ?

The article just is so oddly written should we laugh or cry?

Too sad to be funny .

14 ( +21 / -7 )

A friend who lives in japan told me, the japanese people are quite happy about the tourist ban. They don’t want them to return. Especially in Kyoto.

13 ( +18 / -5 )

Anyone with a shred of intelligence can understand this makes no sense at all !

A superiority complex mixed up passive agressive dysfunctional thinking pattern of self imposed doom.

another unless announcement

Absolutely ridiculous !

You have to wonder what the heck is the problem ?

Mental problems !

3 ( +16 / -13 )

So those who could enter Japan can still enter and tourist are still banned...?

I can't see any change.

13 ( +17 / -4 )

Yes, the government has lifted an "entry ban", but is continuing to not issue the most common visa, the tourist one. This basically means nothing (for non-bureaucrats) has changed. This is being treated as headline news, but the real-world situation is the same as before.

Realistically, the tourism situation is not going to change until the PCR test on arrival is eliminated. Everyone has to get tested within 72 hours of boarding a flight to Japan, so you could argue that there is redundancy there already. There is no way Japan has the resources to test tourism-level numbers on arrival, or to quarantine those found positive, so tourists will not be let in so long as those are the rules.

18 ( +18 / -0 )

Visas will not be issued, in principle, unless those seeking to enter Japan fall under "exceptional circumstances," such as visits to those who are seriously ill or for funerals. Foreign tourists remain banned from entering Japan.

Japanese officials have always taken refuge in obscurity to inconvenience many people domestically and internationally.

12 ( +18 / -6 )

Paying lip service, Japanese style, to other countries that have "opened" up. Tourists can't come, so it means just business types, students, "trainee's" and such, all in the name of making money.

2 ( +13 / -11 )

Yeah right, now that the yen is plummeting, everybody come and work for cheap, and tourists don't come and get good deals.

-8 ( +10 / -18 )

The rules are not very clear. Someone always knows someone who did this that or the other.

It would be nice if there was a lot more clarification.

17 ( +19 / -2 )

This is non news!

Nothing has changed.

It is still the same situation with a few tweaks.

Entering Japan next week I have no idea what will happen when I step out of the airport exit.

It’s still up in the air about whether I need 3 days quarantine with 3 shots of vaccine or I can go home from the airport or two shots of vaccine and 3 days of isolation or no vaccine and 2 negative tests and 6 days of isolation in a hotel.

I am sure there will be a lot of teeth sucking and sharp breath inhalation when I get to the airport.

Japanese politicians and bureaucrats are too idle to get a comprehensive policy together to allow entry but as Japan is slowly being ushered off the world stage then it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.

0 ( +17 / -17 )

Start of the pandemic even permanent residents weren’t allowed in, now the message is crystal clear the government’s is basically saying we don’t want any gaijins here go away. We’re vaxxed and don’t need these garbage policies anymore.

-4 ( +17 / -21 )

So Japanese people can come to my country for a holiday, go wherever they like and explore

For the 2687974 times since covid started on JT:

Ask the question to your government about your country borders being open like a western movie saloon.

J-government CANNOT legally ban entry of it's own citizens (unlike OZ...) but can do that to non-citizens (aka foreigners).

There is no reciprocity in such situations. Just because your country is being lax doesn't mean all countries should follow it's policy. Sovereignty rings a bell?
-14 ( +17 / -31 )

I think that Gov. are assuming that tourism will return to pre pandemic levels. I think will take many years for that to happen.

-2 ( +16 / -18 )

So Japanese people can come to my country for a holiday, go wherever they like and explore... but we can't go to Japan? How can it be safe for the Japanese to go to other countries as tourists, but bar citizens from those countries from doing the same thing in Japan?

I just hope the bans are lifted by the end of October... but you never know.

29 ( +46 / -17 )

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