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Over 100,000 foreign visitors came to Japan in July for 4th month in row

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The real figure is the measly 7000 or so tourists for the month. The whole world is letting people travel freely but Japan is still stuck in 2020. Oh but they will let their own citizens come and go freely……..hardly seems fair. Until Japan changes it’s mindset, those figures will remain low.

26 ( +54 / -28 )

I recently got married in Canada — my wife and 8 would have loved to return to Japan for our honeymoon. Instead we spent our 20k budget traveling all around Europe, mask free, with ease, and without spreading or contracting Covid.

15 ( +45 / -30 )

It is believed the complicated procedures required to visit the nation, such as acquiring a negative coronavirus test result and a visa, are part of the reasons for the low number of tourists

Typical way of writing in Japanese and not recognize clearly or admit the facts.

Tourists do not come because all the guidelines and obligations such as

No freedom outside the group

Wear constantly a mask

Having to apply for a visa

The government knows exactly that issues, but does not change for political reasons.

I met people on business trips . During their days off, they enjoy the freedom and do tourism like locals

22 ( +38 / -16 )

The headline threw me - thought it was the same 100,000 here four times consecutively.

-8 ( +5 / -13 )

Good, little by little everything will return to normal..

Japan does things in the best way they consider..

And we have to respect that, if someone don't like it... Well, there are other countries..

GO JAPAN!!..

-55 ( +7 / -62 )

I live in a smaller city in Norway with a population of 35 000 people. The city has received 400 000 cruise passengers since April 2022. And Japan has received nearly nothing compared. It is time to open borders in Japan and come back to some normality.

12 ( +30 / -18 )

Drop the stupid PCR tests

34 ( +46 / -12 )

@HiJapan

I recently got married in Canada — my wife and [I] would have loved to return to Japan for our honeymoon. Instead we spent our 20k budget traveling all around Europe, mask free, with ease, and without spreading or contracting Covid.

Sounds like you had a great time in Europe! You would preferred to have honeymooned in Japan?

13 ( +18 / -5 )

Surely, Japan cannot continue to tell the world that foreigners are dirty with covid and need to be thoroughly checked before entering. It is just so negative to peoples' view of Japan. Years and years of good image, down the drain.

20 ( +38 / -18 )

Meanwhile, the number of Japanese who went overseas in July numbered 277,900

They do realise that most of these Japanese people are coming back and re-entering Japan, right?

This ongoing limit on inbound tourism, and the hoops needed to go through, is inane.

18 ( +29 / -11 )

They really obsess with this, don't they?

-5 ( +15 / -20 )

Meanwhile, the number of Japanese who went overseas in July numbered 277,900,

Many get positive overseas and can not come back. This cause of lot of problems for them and financial issues. The government slightly start to recognize the problem of PCF tests before returning.

I think as more and more Japanese are concerned and in trouble, the government will slightly reconsider the immigration procedure

12 ( +15 / -3 )

It is believed the complicated procedures required to visit the nation, such as acquiring a negative coronavirus test result and a visa, are part of the reasons for the low number of tourists

…….

My last international flight into Japan (this month) was full of cheap lab… ‘trainees’ hoping for a new life in Japan.

They were so eager to get on the plane, (probably for the first time) lining up at the front 30 minutes before boarding only to be told to wait for parents with children, business class etc to board first-quite pathetically heart warming actually.

From what I saw there weren’t any group tourists on that flight but there were noticeably more Japanese, especially the elderly, families filing into economy and the well heeled vacationers up in business class.

Demand for travel has rebounded as government COVID-19 restrictions on people's movements have been lifted recently.

There have never been any restrictions on movement apart from the enforced militaristic style quarantining which made life difficult for anyone wanting a long weekend in Hawaii.

Still, even now on leaving Japan immigration routinely give a slip of paper to the departed requesting or urging (not sure which) that travel should be lessened.

I usually return the paper to them and tell them that I have already seen it several times…

-2 ( +9 / -11 )

I’d gladly come up for a visit with family if it was not for some organised tour etc. No issue with doing a PCR, done a few in my time.

-3 ( +7 / -10 )

I basically gave up long ago.

I'm waiting for that email for a contract to go work in Jordan.

See you on there beach, either there, or the Dead / Red Sea, or anywhere but Japan.

-15 ( +11 / -26 )

Our company also had some buisness visitors from europe during the last months.

To enter Japan:

To be vaccinated is not necessary.

Negative test must be done in the country where you depart from 72 hours in advance and must be shown to the airline.

By entering Japan, a PCR Test is not necessary.

You need a Visa.

You have to download the App, my SOS, and put all your information, including your negative test result in the App.

The app shows three different staus levels, red, yellow and green.

The company in Japan, which you want to visit for buisness, must send you a kind of invitation, it is called ERFS, which you must add to you Visa application.

That's all so far for buisness travelers from overseas.

But after they enter Japan, they are free to do and go everywhere they want, inclusive tourist trips after work or at the free weekends.

11 ( +20 / -9 )

Surely, Japan cannot continue to tell the world that foreigners are dirty with covid and need to be thoroughly checked before entering. It is just so negative to peoples' view of Japan. Years and years of good image, down the drain.

Sorry, but the need to produce a negative PCR test result applies to Japanese nationals as well.

0 ( +12 / -12 )

This story is pathetic. The responses by most of you, not so. I have been itching to travel again, after two-and-a-half years of lockdown in Canada. I'm rather vexed, and mainly because I have very deep friendships with three Japanese families and Japan's government still won't let a 4-vaxxed (certified) tourist whose next trip could be his last.

Pretty sad, when bureaucracy rules over democracy by force of ambivalence.

10 ( +22 / -12 )

TIJ ( Not TIA ) , This is Japan

-18 ( +1 / -19 )

Time to tighten the screws on the borders …. Literally as soon as they relaxed the borders …. Covid started getting worse and has since exploded… coincidental? No not at all…. Scientific proof of a bad move …. Currently, Japan cannot even take care of residents with Covid…. No need to pile on more cases .

-26 ( +6 / -32 )

Japanese citizens as a whole are allowed to travel anywhere that is open, vacation, return to Japan no problem. (pending negative PCR)

Why can't anyone else enter Japan under the same conditions? (rhetorical question)

6 ( +15 / -9 )

Most likely came as "Technical Interns", and we all know what that means.

-2 ( +6 / -8 )

This is one of the reasons i find the approval ratings surveys for Japan difficult to believe.

How can Japan possibly portray itself as a leader for Asia and a highly developed nation whilst the current travel restrictions clearly show a double standard.

A good question. One reason is that the west has similar restrictions. For example foreign students can work in Japan, but Japanese students can't work in the west. Second, most people take a broad view of a country and they dont look at just one issue. I wonder how the West can portray itself as a highly develop nation whilst Asains are getting their faces kicked in the west and the massive social problems in the west.

-11 ( +8 / -19 )

It's easy enough to switch to South Korea. Lower profile tourist economies, like Vietnam, are looking to ramp up tourism from the West. Why wait endlessly to go where we are no longer welcome when other places are rolling out the welcome mat and really making an effort to develop tourism and foster friendly links?

-5 ( +11 / -16 )

Japan quietly allowed foreign "finacees" to obtain a visa to reunite with their separated love. If the Japanese have not told their stranded lover this, then that Japanese found someone else locally.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

It's wonderful travelling around an already over-populated Japan without the tourist's. Make the most of it while it lasts.

-7 ( +7 / -14 )

WOW !; 100,000 people in a MONTH.

I bet that many come into North America in a DAY / WEEK.

-7 ( +8 / -15 )

Japan does things in the best way they consider..And we have to respect that, if someone don't like it... Well, there are other countries..

Japan does indeed have the right to do what it considers best..... but we absolutely do not have to respect those decisions. Japanese border restrictions are obviously nonsense - the rules as implemented are xenophobic and next to useless as public health measures. I will not respect these decisions because in my opinion, they are idiotic.

Furthermore, because I am so angry about these border restrictions that mean my mother with her partner still can't visit to see her grandchildren and also make it prohibitively expensive us to travel anywhere, it makes me much less amenable to other recommendations from the government. For me to go and get my third or fourth shot, for example, would be tantamount to me agreeing with all of the other rules and recommendations, including the border restrictions.

-6 ( +10 / -16 )

Since the vast majority of these people coming to Japan are here to live and work, should they be referred to as "visitors"? Isn't that misleading? I sometimes "visit" my friends' houses. I use a different word for the houses I go to live in, because it is a completely different situation.

With GoTo postponed, I can't see the border opening to independent tourists this year. Because it sounds nice, it'll probably be spring "for the sakura". This will deny others (myself included) a few more months' income, pretty much an entire year's income for the ski resorts, but most people won't care.

17 ( +19 / -2 )

150,000 divide by 30 days is about 5000 a day.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

They should not conflate "foreign arrivals" and "foreign visitors." I'm sure I was counted as an arrival but I live here and am not a "visitor."

10 ( +18 / -8 )

Most likely came as "Technical Interns", and we all know what that means.

men cheap factory job, women snack, overstay visa to pay back the loan shark mafia, a little birdie told me.

But it is great to travel around Japan without tourists, people are more friendly and relaxed

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

100,000 visitors?? Really? Or are most of these on business, caring for sick relatives, etc? I can't see 100,000 here on restricted guided visits.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

Japan needs tourist money. The country cannot sustain without it.

3 ( +14 / -11 )

Hurry up and open up I want to go homu! But don't let too many people in like before cuz it was too much!

-9 ( +4 / -13 )

Over 100,000 foreign visitors came to Japan in July for 4th month in row

Hope this continues. Unlikely there will ever be times like this again.

-13 ( +1 / -14 )

As flights become more expensive to Japan unless on a 2-3 stop layover to Europe or the Americas then I predict that tourism will shrink for an indefinite period from those places

However, the Chinese won’t have that problem so the language of tourism for the future will be …Mandarin…

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

TBH, I don't miss the hordes of tourists.

Now, I actually get to take in and enjoy the sites.

-9 ( +3 / -12 )

Monty, thanks for the info. What is the time length of the visa?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Monty is wrong. I have just come back to Japan, from a “blue” country, for a family visit. I needed a negative PCR test within 72 hours of travelling and had to download and complete that ridiculous My SOS ap. It was a nightmare getting a flight, and although the entry procedures were smooth it took time due to the unnecessary fuss concerning Japan’s requirements both at my departure and arrival airports. Interestingly, although the flight to Japan was full it was almost all Japanese passengers going home from holiday or summer school (a very large group of children). The few non Japanese were connecting to Australia in Tokyo or lived in Japan. No non Japanese tourists.

2 ( +9 / -7 )

very pathetic number...

very low.

0 ( +9 / -9 )

Tourists can enter Japan only under very restricted conditions. Yet I keep getting carded almost every time I want to check into a hotel. If you have a Japanese address, accommodation providers don't have a legal right to ask you for proof of ID, even if local governments encourage businesses to do that.

If Japan is ever to open to tourists again, it'd be great if the businesses that rely on tourism for money knew what the law actually says and didn't treat every foreign-looking person like a dangerous outsider.

I know this might seem a bit irrelevant to the article, but it's one of many indications of the paradox of how Japan wants foreign tourist money but would rather not deal with any "foreign" people, even if they have spent a good part of their lives here.

8 ( +11 / -3 )

I needed a negative PCR test within 72 hours of travelling and had to download and complete that ridiculous My SOS

That is exactly what I said!

And I am not wrong!

For a buisness traveler, you need a visa plus the ERFS.

But you came for family visit, which is probably a different procedure, but I don't know about familiy visits.

But for business travelers it is exactly like I said, because my company and their oversea travelers are going through exactly these procedures since a few weeks.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

No tourist wants to go on a Nth Korea style tour! The sooner they open the borders to two way traffic the better. My sons school just had a group of Japanese exchange students but if his school wanted to send a class to Japan they couldn't. Absolute unscientific hypocritical bunk!

6 ( +11 / -5 )

I'm Thai, my country have 1,210,000 tourists this past July. and the health system is not in trouble

Yes, we are in the same world.

12 ( +20 / -8 )

men cheap factory job, women snack, overstay visa to pay back the loan shark mafia, a little birdie told me.

Unfortunately , tragically true from experience.

One of my first experiences in Japan was a visa renewal in Shinagawa, and seeing a tiny strutting ojiisan, trailed by a younger man in a suit carrying a massive sheaf of documents, and a coterie of Filipina, Southeast Asian young women marching up to the "Entertainer" visa counter.

4 ( +9 / -5 )

gintonic:

Check the article again Pukey, it says only 7903 of those were actual tourists in July.

OK. I see. Very deceptive title.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

I love Japan the way it is now.

-12 ( +3 / -15 )

Foreign visitors or tourists?

Sounds like they are counting anyone with a non Japanese passport.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

JGOV simply don't want as many tourists coming, lets be honest they would of opened up by now.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

What a massive missed opportunity.

On multiple travel sites, travel agencies, etc.. when poled as to where people most wanted to visit once travel restrictions were lifted.

Japan topped every one.

By failing to open, Japan missed the opportunity and in influx of foreign cash.

To all the " Japan doesn't need foreign tourists" " domestic tourism is enough" crowd.

Here is a little lesson in economics.

Japanese are going outside to travel taking their money with them and spending it outside Japan.

Without foreign tourists bringing money in mean outward flow only.

Domestic tourism only is like owning a restaurant and your only clients are family, sooner or later they run out of money if no non family go to the restaurant.

-2 ( +6 / -8 )

@Antiquesaving the tourist money was mainly from China, which has been under restrictive travels for 3 years, even if Japan opened they still couldn't come. The Chinese are now instead shopping from Japan online, so your argument is moot

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

Seth M

Today 03:29 pm JST

@Antiquesaving the tourist money was mainly from China, which has been under restrictive travels for 3 years, even if Japan opened they still couldn't come. The Chinese are now instead shopping from Japan online, so your argument is moot

Did I say China?

No these were North America and Europe.

But hey if you want to hide away in the new Edo remember unless you are a real Japanese, you toay find you are not welcome here.

-8 ( +4 / -12 )

Seth M

Today 03:29 pm JST

FYI

Interest in coming to Japan was particularly high among survey participants living in Asian countries, with more than half choosing the country as their preferred port of call. The United States ranked first with respondents residing in Europe, North America, and Australia, but Japan was close behind in second, garnering more than 20% of votes as the most longed-for travel spot.

https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00803/amp/

BTW Asian doesn't mean China.

Contrary to popular belief there are plenty of other countries and a lot of money in those other countries.

Before Covid the fastest growing sector was Halal Japanese restaurants and services, with more and more tourists coming from Malaysia and Indonesia.

With Halal Ramen, Tempura, etc ...

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

What are the reasons for the continuing border restrictions on tourists (assuming they are there for COVID related public health reasons)?

To stop new variants reaching the country?

Not a single variant appears to have been prevented from reaching these shores by the restrictions operating at any point during the pandemic - alpha, delta, omicron and now ba. 2 and ba. 5, all of them arrived and spread here just as quickly as they did to the shores of any other country irrespective of any border controls. Hardly surprising - how on earth are border controls that forbid foreign tourists, but allow Japanese to travel freely going to stop any variant from getting here. Complete nonsense.

Foreign tourists can't be trusted to follow rules and recommendations like the Japanese can.

Really? So foreign tourists would be told "you can come, but please wear a mask etc.", they agree to that and then the arrive, see everyone wearing masks and then suddenly say - "actually, I'm not going to bother wearing a mask". Again, how ridiculous is that? I imagine hardly anybody would do that! The kind of tourists coming to Japan are not "spring-breakers" going to Cancun or their like, they are a more mature group coming for a cultural experience in general.

Foreign tourists might get catch COVID and require hospitalizing further stretching the healthcare services.

How many tourists would be in Japan at any one time? Without the Chinese who still can't travel easily due to their own restrictions, maybe 1 million? That is less than 1% of the population of Japan - most of them young and healthy enough to take long flights here and travel around independently and not old frail people that are the ones likely to be hospitalized with COVID. Older people are more likely to want to travel on organized tours rather than independently - the kind of tours that are actually allowed by the Japanese government. Again, you couldn't even make this stuff up, it is so ridiculous!

0 ( +6 / -6 )

Inbound tourism is export, outbound tourism is import.

Japan has huge trade deficits for the last months, but it seems no-one is connecting the dots.

Wonder why I’m wet… could it be because its raining?

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Randall. I live here and have done for many years. I have a Japanese wife and children here, we are currently purchasing a house and I have a career here that is not easy to just transfer to another country. The border closures to tourists are not just affecting tourists to Japan - it is also very difficult for us as a family to travel anywhere due to hugely inflated flight prices as well as the inconvenience having to obtain tests etc. and risking a positive test on the way back and getting stuck in a hotel with small children. I would normally be traveling to international conferences as part of my job, but cannot do so because of the rules at my institution which are in place because of the border restrictions. So please, save it with your "you are a guest here", or that you are free to leave comments. Some of us have our lives here and strong commitments to this country - commitments we made long before these restrictions were enforced. As I mentioned earlier in this section - although Japan is free to make its own rules and we have to abide by them, we absolutely are not obliged to have any kind of respect for them and I will continue to exercise my right to criticize them as much as I see fit.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

@Randall/Russell

Opening the borders is a solution. Not doing it hasn't prevented Japan from having the most daily infections in the world for a while.

Also, I always say it when someone posts the "if you don't like it, leave" phrase (which is considered hate speech under Japanese law), but we have jobs, families, lives here. We won't suspend critical thinking just because someone doesn't like what we say. And we won't uproot our lives here just because they tell us to be quiet.

Anyway, Japan is shooting itself in the foot. It had a bustling tourism industry, but after two years of awful PR, it's hardly likely it'll recover any time soon (I might be wrong, as people tend to have short memories). For xenophobes who are uncomfortable if they're surrounded by anyone who doesn't look or sound like them, this might be good. That is, as long as they don't find they need care when they're older or if their job doesn't rely on cash those pesky foreign tourists bring in.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Can someone please explain why Japan insists on tourists having pre-arrival covid tests, when this disease is already completely widespread and rampant within Japan? It makes no sense to me at all. I would love to go back to Japan but am not able to do so since private, independent tourists are banned. What a shame!

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Time for Japan to open up and join the rest of the world. What happened to their participation in the Visa Waiver Program? If we need a visa to visit Japan, the USA and other countries need to expect the same from Japanese citizens visiting the USA and other countries.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Steven MccarthyToday  08:37 am JST

Time to tighten the screws on the borders …. Literally as soon as they relaxed the borders …. Covid started getting worse and has since exploded… coincidental? No not at all…. Scientific proof of a bad move …. Currently, Japan cannot even take care of residents with Covid…. No need to pile on more cases .

Uh, no. Covid entered Japan at pretty much the same time as everywhere else over two years ago. The same variant is infecting people at the same rate right now as it is everywhere else. The idea that a statistically insignificant number of foreigners entering Japan are the reason for Japan’s high infection rate isn’t science at all, it’s ignorance.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

I've cancelled my holiday, and looking at what you need to do just to be part of a strictly controlled group is maddening: a positive PCR test, a Visa, booking the tour with a Japanese company, taking out health insurance, only allowed to go where you are told, no meeting of friends... all because the JGov see us foreigners are dirty, unable to behave responsibly and probably plague carriers.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

HAHA, how ironic this article comes out today; I just now uploaded a YouTube video of my own personal experiences with applying for a Japanese travel visa for September 1 - 30, 2022. I have been invited to a Shinto wedding of a friend in Hiroshima, as well as have been asked to help another friend with his gohan harvest in Saga-ken later in September. I don't "fit" the Japanese "tourist visa" profile - likely my application will be rejected.

If you want to laugh at my frustrations, have at it: https://youtu.be/ZBXtJJQWtF8

I didn't want to lie on the visa application; I simply want to enjoy my friend's wedding and help harvest oishi Kyushu gohan! But wow, this visa application has broken my spirit to travel again to Japan. We gaijin are not "dirty" or "contaminated with corona"! I've had 2 jabs and 2 boosters, and have not contracted corona here in America (yet). If anything, I'll actually catch corona IN TOKYO if I am allowed to travel there! LOL what a joke. VERY FRUSTRATED.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

These are mostly workers.

Tourists were low at 7,903.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

This nonsense would end in a heartbeat if we in the civilized West cancel visa-free travel for the Japanese. They are literally having their cake and eating it at the same time. The JGov is discriminating against foreigners because we let them and they will continue to screw us until we stand up to them.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

This nonsense would end in a heartbeat if we in the civilized West cancel visa-free travel for the Japanese.

So you're saying western countries should penalize their own tourist industry for your ideology.

Because that makes sense, right?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

@Strangerland Yeah thats exactly what Im saying because we depends so so much on Japanese tourists or we can whine here at nauseam why foreigners are being treated this way by JGov. This is has nothing to do with ideology. Its quite rational and measured tit for tat approach that will push the the lame politicians to start walking the walk.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

This is has nothing to do with ideology.

You're saying countries should punish their own tourism industry by banning people from Japan. If you're going to punish your own people, there must be a reason. If the reason is not ideology, then what is it?

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

I’m surprised no one has asked the Tourism minister whether the volume of tourists is meeting his expectations or not. Without further comment it’s difficult to know if they see this as a problem that needs fixing or just work-in-progress that takes time

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Anyone with ill health or a weakened immune system should avoid Japan as it is probable that the infection will be encountered here,

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Glad I'm coming over on the family visa. No way in hell would I join one of those tours where the guide stands guard outside the stall while you're taking a dump.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Over 100,000 foreign visitors came to Japan in July for 4th month in row

So...........why can't tourists come on their own again?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

They are not tourist then, they come here for intern and students.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

In a full to the rafters restaurant yesterday of drinking and eating Japanese,it is not difficult to see why there is such a high number of infections

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Until they drop the mandatory guided tours, I recommend no one come to visit Japan. It's unbelievable that family members can't even take time off from the tour to visit with family living here, and instead have to pay into the very transparent method of feeding Japan's tourism industry and doing what Japanese people think foreigners should want to see and do.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

There are visas for people with families.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Family members of foreign residents can now enter Japan for short-term visits. Japan has been taking its time in easing border restrictions. While there are no immediate plans to reopen for tourism just yet, the government has begun expanding its scope of visa eligibility, especially for new entries into Japan.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Wow, or waa in Nihongo. Have wanted to visit Japan since 1975, Guess one more year for normal times to visit , ok with me. Such a neat place to visit, would'nt want to be herded around like cattle on guided tour. Good luck everyone. Maybe see you there .!!!??

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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