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© Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Tourists flock to Japan after COVID restrictions lifted
By YURI KAGEYAMA TOKYO©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
50 Comments
kurisupisu
Where’d the thread go?
Kaowaiinekochanknaw
I hope they enjoy their trips and it can be a welcome relief to many who have been hurt and punished and abandoned over the last 2.5 years.
Cricky
The only protocols left for entry are that you must be fully vaccinated with one booster or have a negative PCR test within 72 hours of departure.
‘so not so open.
what state of mind was the author in?
Eager to admire colorful foliage, eat sushi and go shopping, droves of tourists from abroad started arriving Tuesday in Japan for the first day of lifted border restrictions,
Droves?
sushi is available globally, Autumn, Fall also happens globally and
with one booster or have a negative PCR test within 72 hours of departure. Well that’s a border restriction. So this story is full of misrepresentation and lies.
‘Droves, let’s compound the lie and call it a mass migration.
‘Third biggest economy with the poorest population don’t think me or my neighbour think mmm third biggest economy.
buchailldana
Hopefully it will show people here wearing masks are so last year
Ricky Kaminski13
Open the floodgates, cash in on that cheap yen visitors! Revitalize and reopen the nation. Just in the nick of time too, was feeling a bit boxed in! tanoshindekudasaine!
Nemo
Hurray! Welcome and have a look around (feel free to spend some money too. The Yen is quite cheap at the moment.)
I recommend Tottori if you want off the beaten path but Boyle too far off.
The Sand Sculpture museum is wonderful.
Do us a favor and wear a mask on public transportation.
Seigi
WELCOME BACK Japanophiles!!! Enjoy Japan after more than two years of isolation!
Paustovsky
Most of the tourists to Japan tend to fall into the 'When In Rome' type of visitor. They will wear masks as required.
There seems to be a great deal of projection from certain resident commenters that these visitors will somehow all flock in unmasked just to prove some spurious point to the Japanese.
I haven't seen an unmasked foreigner here in 3 years but judging by some comments over that period every village has one.
CrashTestDummy
Japan is going to make billions in USD for taking my advice. Wink, wink. Lol. ;)
wallace
kurisupisu
This is a new post
https://japantoday.com/category/national/japan-reopens-to-tourists-with-shuttered-souvenir-shops-hotel-staff-shortage
wallace
"Maido Ookini"
Septim Dynasty
Too bad! The real target for the reopening is the Chinese. They can't come because China is still closed.
kurisupisu
@wallace
I know,the recycled picture had me confused.
Thunderbird2
I'm booking for this time next year - allow Japan to fully get back into the swing of things. I cancelled my holiday for November this year because it didn't look like Japan was going to open up in 2022. So in one respect I'm a little annoyed, but on the other hand, unless there's WW3, another more lethal strain of Covid or the UK economy utterly tanks I'm going back to Japan in 2023 :)
Asiaman7
I guess you haven’t been to Yoyogi Park in the past three years!
kyushubill
Man purses, man purses everywhere.
Guy wants to see nature but is planning on staying in only cities. Enjoy that one tree in Tokyo.
Fighto!
Good news - sorely welcomed by the tourist industry and the hundreds of thousands connected to it. Win-Win.
While it may take a year to return to 20 million+ tourists per month, foreigners everywhere are literally sprinting to their local airports to get into Japan for autumn and winter delights! Hokkaido in particular will be in full flow this ski season, with enormous falls predicted - and foreigners flocking en-masse!
Fighto!
Oops - make that 3 million tourists/month.
It should be back there by 23/24.
Paustovsky
@Asiaman7
No, I haven't. But Japan is not just a park in Tokyo.
Listen, I understand Japan is deeply insular and the rest of the world is relatively back to normal but the idea that droves of maskless foreigners are going to pitch up and convince the locals the errors of their ways is wishful thinking at best.
Lord Dartmouth
It may be coincidence, but I got my first criticism for not wearing a mask outdoors today. I was walking to the station and I heard a very unfriendly 'Unbelievable' just behind me. I spun around and saw a middle-aged man, all masked up, shoot off down a side street on his bike.
I suppose the reopening to foreigners has been reported on heavily on mainstream TV, and I'm guessing the narrative is that foreigners are welcome as long as they follow our rules (even if they're not really rules). Sad.
Highlander in Tokyo
just look at the photo of the arrival lobby at the top of the story. I count at least 3.
Patricia Yarrow
The previous photo showed a crowed of Narita incoming tourist WITHOUT masks. Now, we see this "politically correct" MASKED group.
Michael Machida
I personally welcome all of the International visitor to my City, Tokyo! We missed you all and understand that your funds help us to survive ~ albeit we truly do love you all and wish you have a great time in Japan!
Luddite
“Flock” and “droves”. Not quite.
hattorikun
Welcome to JP. Although I would try to avoid places where there might be many loud visitors.
zulander
Maybe you only see what your echo chamber allows you to.
I see plenty of people, jpnese and foreign, not wearing masks and getting on with their lives.
Wear a mask and get vaccinated as many times as you want - then the behavior of the unmasked should be of little consequence to you, and you can get on with your life too.
Stephen
Tourists will be asked kindly to put their masks on before going into an extremely crowded and maskless izakaya - they will then be allowed to take them off. None of it makes any sense anymore.
Paustovsky
@zulander
That doesn't make any sense at all. I have eyes. In the city I live in of just under a million people you can count the number of people not wearing a mask each day in the tens. And that's outside. Anywhere inside, even cars and that figure almost disappears.
Zizi
Are they? They aren't doing that here in Scandinavia or neighbouring northern European countries.
Where are all these foreigners you speak of?
zulander
Daily, none of them were foreign? or was the original statement an exaggeration?
I see plenty of indoors unmasked both, granted still between 10-20% of people but growing daily. I commute daily to Tokyo from out past Yokohama.
I do see plenty outside, masked up, which is their choice if not rather sad. This is more indicative of how much fearmongering has gone on if anything, as even though the govt says there is no need for masking outside.
tamanegi
Wear a mask please foreigner!
Mostafa Sultani Hussaini
I am against wearing of mask at this time after Covid vaccination, things to come to normal the sooner the better, the vaccine protects like the influenza virus vaccine, people should not be very scared special the young people the older people to be more concern about the covid. Life to go on to normal again. I hope the tourists enjoy their visit to Japan.
zulander
y’all are multiple vaxed, wear masks, and maybe the maskless person is vaxed too- how is them masking up making a difference to you?
Hows about you do you. Let people get on with their lives. Find some actual meaningful way of visually indicating that you are a good person.
CrashTestDummy
So, will Japan close again when the COVID cases go up in winter? It will be interesting to see what kind of response will happen.
Bobo
Welcome back ! Great news, btw masks are not mandatory here folks, feel free to breathe Japan’s air.a poll showed 2/3 s of people here want to stop wearing’em , but they must do what everone else does, so that’s it!
theResident
@Awa no Gaijin : Tonakatu of the quality of Butagumi (for example) Not a chance anywhere outside Japan. I've looked. Sure, your Coco Curry quality.. If that's what rocks your boat.
Mark
Glad to see japan opening up, welcome back guys we missed you all.
Brian William Meissner
It seems like a counterintuitive choice to open the boarders with the struggling ambulances, Japan just coming out of its worst wave yet but we’ll see.
kurisupisu
Actually the vaccinated do seem to be more at risk.
I’ll go with the intrusive PCR test e erytime though.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-vaccine-booster-shot-infection-rate/
theResident
Herve: Funded by Moderna - Yes. So, lets take some soundbites shall we:
Manuscripts submitted to medRxiv are not certified by scientific peer review, edited, or typeset before being posted online. This means they may contain errors and/or omissions. Some manuscripts might be undergoing peer review, and the journals or other organizations who are responsible for this process, have the opportunity to post peer reviews alongside preprints in the article dashboard
W****hile 3-dose VE against BA.1 infection was high and waned slowly, VE against BA.2, BA.2.12.1, BA.4, and BA.5 infection was initially moderate to high (61.0%-90.6% 14-30 days post third dose) and waned rapidly. The 4-dose VE against infection with BA.2, BA.2.12.1, and BA.4 ranged between 64.3%-75.7%, and was low (30.8%) against BA.5 14-30 days post fourth dose, disappearing beyond 90 days for all subvariants. The 3-dose VE against hospitalization for BA.1, BA.2, and BA.4/BA.5 was 97.5%, 82.0%, and 72.4%, respectively; 4-dose VE against hospitalization for BA.4/BA.5 was 88.5%. Evaluation of the updated bivalent booster is warranted.
Somewhere I have missed your point!
If you haven't left in years notrintend to, then what possible interest is this topic of tourism for you to being up what you consider a ludicrous requirement! Non Residents of the USA still have to prove vaccination for entry - I assume you think that is ludicrous too?
Moira
The hostility in some of these comments is really disheartening.
memoryfix
I think the message Washington Post gave potential American tourists was you have to wear a mask if going to Japan.
Now for most westerners, “have to” means must by law. They don’t suspect the insidious social pressure that drives mask wearing here.
And since most of the early western arrivers will be of the PC type politically, they will mask up, sad to say.
I hope I’m wrong.
Sanjinosebleed
Funny, on the J news last night none of the tourists were wearing the useless face masks. Absolutely loved it! ;D
Not sure about Flock either until the remove the remaining measures. The J times article said most of those it interviewed were returning business people not tourists.
garypen
It's good for all the small businesses that rely on tourism, and for the economy in general, of course. But, I'll miss the comfortably uncrowded streets of Kyoto. And, do not look forward to the return of the throngs of people jamming the sidewalks, side streets, historical destinations, and nature's beauty.
wallace
Foreign tourists to Kyoto are only 20% and 80% are domestic.
garypen
Why are so many posts about masks??? What is the fixation?
If you're indoors in a public place (shops, restaurants, trains, buses, etc), wear a mask.
If you're outdoors, don't wear a mask. (Unless you're shoulder-to-shoulder in a crowd, of course.)
What's the problem?
Mask-wearing has been common here for decades during cold/flu and allergy seasons, well before Covid.