Japan to tighten border controls on visitors from 3 U.S. states, Finland

I'm sure it all looks like a great plan on paper

Yeah, tightened border controls and required quarantine in special facilities...

....unless, of course, someone is part of an Olympic (and soon Paralympic) delegation.

Still open for those Japanese abroad that just want to come for a quick visit and a jab?

They will still be requested to undergo self-isolation for 14 days after entering Japan.

There is no such thing as self-isolation for people who travel abroad. They travel for some reason and won’t be sitting in closed rooms self isolating for 14 days! Pure stupidity for authorities to “REQUEST self isolation”!

If you live in Japan and want to return to your home here you must first just through these five multi colored hoops. It's the rules.

This is returning Japanese and residents here. The borders remain closed to most travellers.

Any info in English about when the borders are likely to reopen for travelers who aren't Japanese or don't have resident permit?

Any info in English about when the borders are likely to reopen for travelers who aren't Japanese or don't have resident permit?

It will be after the Olympics...

...after the upcoming election in Sept/Oct...

...after all adults are vaccinated (maybe by the end of Nov?)...

...after they vaccinate all the 12-18 year olds (who knows)...

...after Japan re-opens to business travelers and new visa holders (students, ALTs, factory workers)...

...after they set up a "trial" program for letting in limited numbers of tourists from "select" countries who are probably required to be on a group tour...

...and after the virus spread has leveled off to a low enough point.

So there won't be any "talk" of opening to unrestricted travel for non-visa holders (i.e. tourists) from the majority of the world's countries until spring 2022... and that would be when they might just start "discussing". Japan won't actually reopen to tourists till much later than that.

U.S. states of Indiana, Kansas and Texas

No Florida?

Record cases there under DeSantis who is living up to all the worst stereotypes of Floridians.

How do they know if someone has been to Kansas or Indiana? LOL! Texas I can see, we have flights from Dallas and Houston... but is anyone stupid enough to walk up to the health counter and say they've been to those other states to get 3 free nights in an APA hotel?

@dagon

Florida is already on the list. This article was just mentioning the 3 latest states to be added to the list.

It would be nice if the article actually included a table of all the states/countries forced to quarantine in a hotel because the official Japanese government page is a nightmare to read. Whoever designed it should be fired.

Texas!

Hilarious!

Texas on July 31st conducted over 99,000 covid tests ( population 29 million)

On July 31 Texas reported 5,631 new covid cases.

Vaccination:

51% at least 1 dose 43% fully vaccinated.

Compare that to Japan on July 31st

Total test for the country 87,700

Total new cases 12,329

Population 126 million

Tokyo on July 31 st population 14 million

Total tests 8,102

Total new cases 3,058

Vaccination:

29% fully vaccinated 11% 1 dose

Total 40% at least one dose.

It seems Texas is possibly safer than Japan.

Oh, Japanese bureaucracy...If it was an Olympic event not doubt which country wins gold!

No Florida?

Record cases there under DeSantis who is living up to all the worst stereotypes of Floridians.

I previously did the comparison between Tokyo, Japan and Florida.

Again.

Florida is out testing Japan as a country and has a positivity rate far lower than Japan.

Comparing to Tokyo become a joke when Tokyo tests few than 3,000 a daily.

It's here already circulating among the general population. The problem is in your own backyard and your own stupid useless methods of trying to contain the outbreak.

Traveled between US and Japan three times since March. The last time I flew with 72 members of the US Olympic team in July. The control measures at pre immigration seemed the best on the second trip and the worst on the last. The 14 day quarantine measures were best on the last as it seems they finally got the application issues mostly worked out and I actually was video called multiple times daily both automated and live operators.

If you have free time, moving back and forth isn’t all that difficult. These extra measures make it a bit more inconvenient. Although I don’t agree with limiting separate States as there are no cross state restrictions in the US. Doesn’t make much sense to me.

@Kentarogaijin

Why not the whole 50??..

Everything there is a dissater..

Yeah, maybe the US should’ve buried it’s head in the sand and massively restricted testing a la Japan...

I meant “its.”

But for the olympics, everyone and anyone was allowed in? What’s the difference?

"Japan will also shorten the quarantine period of 10 days on visitors from Afghanistan to six days"...

+

"They will still be requested to undergo self-isolation for 14 days after entering Japan" = Huh?

@Reckless.

It is doubtful.

So there won't be any "talk" of opening to unrestricted travel for non-visa holders (i.e. tourists) from the majority of the world's countries until spring 2022... and that would be when they might just start "discussing". Japan won't actually reopen to tourists till much later than that.

Just as well I have a flexible ticket... meant to be flying in April/May... we shall see. By then everyone in the UK will have had both vaccinations, and probably the booster as well.

My opinion is that Japan should use this time of relative quiet to get as many people vaccinated as possible. A little more than one-third of Japanese are vaccinated, and that is not enough to stop the spread of Covid. The highly transmissible Delta variant is on its way, and when it gets to Japan, it could bring devastation.

Unless they are coming for the Olympics.

My opinion is that Japan should use this time of relative quiet to get as many people vaccinated as possible. A little more than one-third of Japanese are vaccinated, and that is not enough to stop the spread of Covid. 

Yeah, if only. Japan was suppose to have all over-65s fully vaccinated by the start of the Olympics. Then they pushed back that date to Juy 31st. Well that came and went and they only got about 70-75% of elderly fully vaccinated by now.

But woops, now they are running out of vaccine and have had to scale back the vaccinations. They are now even seeking to spread out the time between shots to over a month since they don't have enough to even give a second shot to those who already have the first.

The highly transmissible Delta variant is on its way, and when it gets to Japan, it could bring devastation.

Umm, where you been? It's already here and has been for months. Delta is thought to be at or over 50% of all new cases now. Except that they only check a handful of random cases to see which strain it is...

...then again, they only test a handful of people for actual Covid.

(yesterday Tokyo tested 16,000, which was one of their biggest days ever. But the day before it was only 3,300. However, about 30,000 Olympic athletes and IOC staff get tested every day, however in a year and a half of coronavirus, Tokyo has never tested over 20,000 in one day of the general population.)

This is hilarious, shouldn't Japan tighten border controls on prefectures within Japan? From the reports I am reading the problem is in Japan.

Yep, the infection rate is being driven by the residents of Japan…

I don't think these daily positivity numbers mean much without knowing the testing numbers. A better indicator of Covid seriousness would be hospitalization numbers. Hospitalizations tell the true story.

Antique- Texas is safe except for all the unvaccinated illegals Biden is letting in.

Only benefit for Japan during Corona is less immigration and less inbound tourism. Both are bad for Japan.