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Japan starts accepting applications for 'vaccine passports'

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I want one. I also have a Misdo stamp card.

-17 ( +8 / -25 )

Yeah, but you still have to self isolate for two weeks upon return here. Even after being double vaccinated. Who’s able to do that?

28 ( +32 / -4 )

@Newgirlintwon: And that will change eventually, probably at very short notice (as the last 18 months has proven), then everybody will rush to get one - so if you can, get it now. My second shot is this coming Friday and I'll applying straight away thereafter.

7 ( +16 / -9 )

OMG still at the paper era !

13 ( +21 / -8 )

What’s the point of them if one still has to quarantine for 2 weeks when they return? If one tests negative upon their return then it should be done.

Who exactly has enough time off of work blow 2+ weeks just to sit around when they are fully vaccinated?

18 ( +23 / -5 )

This is madness and tyranny.

2 ( +25 / -23 )

@theresident

Me too!

Second shot this friday at my company.

Because I normally have many many business trips, I hope my company will also support me with the vaccine passport somehow.

4 ( +10 / -6 )

Madness? Tyranny? Why is that? Its a piece of paper with your name/passport number and a note of brand/batch of vaccine. Pretty much no more than you have to enter into an airlines website for API for a number of years now.

0 ( +20 / -20 )

I can see lawsuits coming against discrimination based on one's personal medical decision. Coercing the public into injecting potentially injurious or fatal substances into their bodies under the threat of exclusion from participation in civil life is serious breach of bodily autonomy and human rights.

4 ( +28 / -24 )

If you don't want the vaccine , that's perfectly understandable. Just don't expect to be able to travel freely for quite a while / or expect sympathy from the courts because of it. I expect there will be court cases, but most will be tossed as the majority will wish to travel with people who ARE vaccinated. Dollars and Sense.

3 ( +27 / -24 )

...and I don't think international travel/visiting Restaurants/Sports Venues can be defined as 'civil life'. They are privileges.

-11 ( +13 / -24 )

Who exactly has enough time off of work blow 2+ weeks just to sit around when they are fully vaccinated?

Expect things to change once the silly symphonies are over after Sep 8. They won't have face to save by then, business travel will likely then pick up again. I'd expect non-citizens who reside here to be treated differently no doubt.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Applications?

Not issuing?

I got my ‘papers’ a month ago…

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

I personally can handle the quarantine at home as I work from home mostly. What I don't like is having to spend 25,000 yen for a car ride that lasts under an hour from the airport.

9 ( +15 / -6 )

My papers were in Japanese only, so I applied this morning for a so-called vaccine ‘passport’.

“It may take from a week to a month before you receive it”, I was told.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

My ward (Edogawa) is ONLY accepting the applications by postal mail. No walk-ins.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

I'm not worried about getting into other countries. Getting into the USA is easy to do.

I'm worried about returning back to Japan and not having to quarantine for two weeks in Tokyo, Then being able to go back to my prefecture.

THAT is the main problem. The Japanese government (surprise surprise), not international travel.

Not EVERYONE in Japan, lives in Tokyo. Japan making it difficult as usual.

So with this "passport", can we travel freely among Japan on public transportation upon arrival from other countries? That's what many want to know.

No disrespect to Estonia or Poland, but those aren't the biggest concerns here.

15 ( +17 / -2 )

What about the USA?

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

The selfishness of those who want to "return to normal" with the bars, the travels ,etc is dooming us and future generations. They are trashing the liberties that our ancestors have fought to obtain. That is what is bound to happen in a god less, materialistic world, where all that matters is the party to go on. The worst part is that we will never return to normal.

The people who accept the vaccine passports are more or less like war collaborators in bed with the enemy.

Hopefully the West (France, Italy, England) will topple their tyranical regimes and make those responsible for this crime against Humanity pay the harshest price. Amen.

-14 ( +12 / -26 )

Ha!

7 ( +8 / -1 )

What are those boxes for in the back ground?

previous applications or previous applications for the first form?

11 ( +11 / -0 )

If a piece of paper in English can maybe make it easier to cross borders, then why not? I have not been back to my own country and I have not seen my beloved children for approaching two years.

(The vaccination itself is no big deal and I feel absolutely no different after receiving two. I continue to double-mask in public. By the same token I know that I can still catch this thing depending on the circumstances.)

8 ( +13 / -5 )

This article is just a government press release dressed up as journalism. No quotes from anyone questioning the need for one of these things as usual.

3 ( +17 / -14 )

If Japan won't accept my proof of two vaccinations, here in Canada, without making me quarantine IF I choose to go back for another extended visit, I will encourage my government to not accept Japanese tourists. It's tit for tat, people.

22 ( +25 / -3 )

This is SO easy to do properly, yet Japan needs me to ask for it, and go somewhere to get it. There is no reason that this isn't automatic. The government has records of everyone already, we have residence cards, MyNumber cards, these are tied to a central database, there is no reason that those databases cannot be updated to include a "vaccinated" flag. It's trivial to solve.

You could then have a portal available to anyone, key in your residence card number and it shows you if the vaccine is completed. This would cost the government basically nothing to do, yet they want to use paper, with a massive administrative cost.

17 ( +21 / -4 )

Considering there's no feasible way of actually getting the vaccines for younger population this year, this have no use to the majority. The appointment system for most wards remain closed and will likely remain extremely limited for non-existant for the remainder of the year as the national government have no real plan of distributing more vaccines to the localities.

3 ( +8 / -5 )

blahblah222Today  07:04 pm JST

Considering there's no feasible way of actually getting the vaccines for younger population this year, this have no use to the majority. The appointment system for most wards remain closed and will likely remain extremely limited for non-existant for the remainder of the year as the national government have no real plan of distributing more vaccines to the localities.

Thing is, younger people don't even need the vaccine - the risk to them of harm from the vaccine is greater than the risk of harm from the virus, no matter what the usual suspects on this site may claim. Vaccine passports are simply a way to coerce the vaccine-wary into getting it lest they can't travel in future.

-12 ( +11 / -23 )

Thing is, younger people don't even need the vaccine - the risk to them of harm from the vaccine is greater than the risk of harm from the virus, no matter what the usual suspects on this site may claim. Vaccine passports are simply a way to coerce the vaccine-wary into getting it lest they can't travel in future.

Any source to prove this? or we are supposed to believe it just on your authority?

What data proves there is more risk for younger people from the vaccines than from the virus? obviously you didn't just pull this out of thin air, or did you?

6 ( +20 / -14 )

Vaccine passports seem like a good idea until they are not. Ask anyone in China if they like living under big brother. Slowly but surely everyone is loosing their freedoms and then one day everyone will say, “oh snap, we didn’t see it coming” When the government see you as sheep, they act like wolves. Anyone who disagrees, I ask you to think back on this 10-20 years from now. No need to respond to this comment. Just remember it.

9 ( +18 / -9 )

I personally wouldn't have a problem with having one of these.

Course I have to get vaccinated first, which is proving about as easy right now as keeping the daily covid cases under a thousand.

10 ( +15 / -5 )

Imagine thinking the government gives freedom to the people. Accepting a vaccine passport is placing the noose around your own neck. Viruses come and go but freedom given up stays gone. Even if you're fully "vaccinated" you should be concerned with the type of restrictive policies being willfully accepted by society.

-2 ( +10 / -12 )

..and I don't think international travel/visiting Restaurants/Sports Venues can be defined as 'civil life'. They are privileges.

Yes, North Korea and some other countries like that agree with you that international travel is a privilege. But in the free world, freedom of movement is a human right. No country should have the right to keep citizens as prisoners. One would think this is simple enough to understand, but these days...

And by the way, I am fully vaccinated. I just don't like fascism.

1 ( +12 / -11 )

@comanteer: Nobody is talking about the end of freedom of movement. But, in the near future if having a vaccine passport would prevent you having to Quarantine for 2 weeks in arrival back in Japan, why would you NOT do it? It's not going to be forever.

-1 ( +10 / -11 )

.. Yes, I know they are not going to end the 2 week Quarantine right now.

-4 ( +4 / -8 )

@theResident

If it's not going to be in place forever then it doesn't need to be in place now either. Covid won't miraculously disappear once people have a vaccine passport. That thinking is not very scientific unfortunately.

3 ( +9 / -6 )

Do you see those boxes behind the girl? I rest my case. I and the wife will continue with our in-country travel for a week at a time every 5 weeks or so for the next two years or so because I am not going to deal with the paperwork shuffle with Japanese bureaucrats.

My pension folder is like 6-7 meters thick. I do not want to deal with another one.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

"Reciprocity" is the word that might not have been considered with the weight it deserves.

These passports are great in theory if they give vaccinated Japanese folks the ability to travel overseas.

But if the Japanese government doesn't honor the vaccine passports from overseas, the vaccine passports from Japan won't be honored overseas. This is a two-way street. When Bulgaria and Poland or whoever said they'd honor the Japanese passports, they likely implied that their own would need to be simultaneously honored in Japan.

11 ( +12 / -1 )

Vaccine passports will not preclude the need for a PCR test and anyway this virus doesn’t have long to go now….

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

Thing is, younger people don't even need the vaccine - the risk to them of harm from the vaccine is greater than the risk of harm from the virus

Nah, it's not.

6 ( +11 / -5 )

vaccine passports are the most discriminating thing made in the last 60 years

-5 ( +8 / -13 )

I ask you to think back on this 10-20 years from now. No need to respond to this comment. Just remember it.

Instead I thought back after the last 40-50 years and remembered all the vaccination certificates I have collected along the way. I think I even have a booklet of them somewhere. And in all that time, I have visited several countries where producing the certificate was a condition for entry, along with the regular passport.

Those who are now getting hot under the collar about your 'bodily autonomy', I guess you also never have medical checkups for things like heart disease, diabetes, cancer ...? And I'm sure you would never go to the dentist - you'll leave a tooth cavity untreated rather than the dentist invade your bodily autonomy, right? I expect you will be suing the tyrannical authorities for vaccinating you against polio and smallpox when you were a baby and have kept you alive and disease free since then? And I guess presenting a passport at immigration, or opening your suitcase at customs, or completing a tax return, also encroach on your 'personal freedom', amIright? And of course if you do get Covid and get sick, you will refuse any and all medical treatment, on principle ...?

But actually, even assuming you said yes to that last one, you will still represent a health hazard to the rest of us, as a potential disease reservoir and vector, as well an incubator of potential more dangerous mutations. Which is why public health is about more than our personal choice. I guess though, if everyone who wants to take this ultra decision agrees to go to an uninhabited island and live together on it without ever leaving, that would be fine by me, but as long as you are circulating unvaccinated amongst us, you will continue to represent a threat to our health. This is why in earlier times, leprosy or tuberculosis sufferers were banished to isolated settlements. And that is one more reason why vaccination has allowed us to be less, not more discriminatory, as you seem to believe.

4 ( +9 / -5 )

If a piece of paper in English can maybe make it easier to cross borders, then why not? I have not been back to my own country and I have not seen my beloved children for approaching two years.

(The vaccination itself is no big deal and I feel absolutely no different after receiving two. I continue to double-mask in public. By the same token I know that I can still catch this thing depending on the circumstances.)

why not ? cause it's a discrimination

the vaccine is not mandatory and anyone can choose to take the shot or not, with the vaccine passport you are forced to take the vaccine if you want to come back to your country and visit your relatives.

(The vaccination itself is a big deal, if you check carefully on the internet, and I feel very well without it. I continue to go out without a mask. By the same token I know that I can still catch this thing in the same way I could have caught influenza in the previous years).

-7 ( +4 / -11 )

Since you asked, look at the death rates by age by or with COVID-19 are here

https://toyokeizai.net/sp/visual/tko/covid19/en.html

and here.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/investigations-discovery/hospitalization-death-by-age.html

But for young people, the risk of injury from these vaccines is higher than major illness and death from the virus itself. People are being injured or killed by these vaccines who would highly likely have been unaffected of mildly affected by the virus itself.

https://www.openvaers.com/covid-data

Now, you'll likely try to discredit the source instead of the data itself, but you're welcome to wade through the CSV files from VAERS to get the info.

Thing is, people are welcome to take these jabs of their own free will, but what's happening now around the world ranges from unethical inducement and coercion, all the while suppressing cheap, safe and effective non-vaccine protection and treatment. You really have to ask yourself why that's being done. But instead you'll obfuscate and bring up the conspiracy theory chestnut. Don't waste your time.

-7 ( +8 / -15 )

The point is that we are not able to travel freely for quite a while even after we are double jabbed. Polio, typhoid, diphtheria, yellow fever, hepatitis B, Japanese encephalitis, tuberculosis... all far worse than COVID (and for which I have been jabbed), yet there are no travel restrictions regarding those diseases (for the jabbed).

There is no polio, typhoid, diphtheria etc. pandemic right now. That's the difference.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

But for young people, the risk of injury from these vaccines is higher than major illness and death from the virus itself.

You have presented no such thing, the VAERS source clearly, explicitly says that all incidents HAVE to be compared between vaccinated and unvaccinated people to see what is actually related to the vaccines.

There is no report that indicates an increase of risk only on vaccinated young people to even a significant fraction of the risk from COVID, which means you are mistaken.

So you failed to prove your mistaken conclusion and instead tried to mislead people into thinking normal rates of problems were present only on vaccinated people when that is not the case? that would actually prove the opposite of what you said.

6 ( +14 / -8 )

@jeffb: Then the quicker we all get vaccinated and dilute the virus then the quicker things will get back to the way that we don't need proof of vaccination. It's the idiot anti-vaxxer holdouts that will extend this misery claiming that it's all a massive injustice and discriminatory.

2 ( +9 / -7 )

Can they at the same time issue a passport for those with rather severe immune disorders and or diabetics that are told no way for the vaccine? Or of handicapped genetically like one of my daughters?

Not fare.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

The big question is, when will Japan accept its own vaccine passport for entry into Japan?

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Of course - come on, anybody who has a valid medical reason NOT to be vaccinated should be exempt and no restrictions placed upon them. It's the people who think its a conspiracy by Government, Big Pharma and the like that should in my opinion be locked up. How on earth do they think we got rid of MANY serious diseases through mass vaccination? They are just being difficult for the sake of it, and their arguments become progressively more crazed, the websites they reference more bizarre and their sources more wacky.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

@theResident

The idea that we can escape misery by all getting vaccinated is more delusional sounding than you might think. Do you really think the entire world is going to all suddenly behave accordingly? If you like the idea of governments allowing certain citizens privileges over others based on an arbitrary medical status as a form of punishment, you're in favor of a social concept called authoritarianism. Please don't forget that people flying internationally who have received the vaccine are also capable of carrying the virus. So we should really consider if this new policy makes sense or not regardless how scary covid might seem.

-7 ( +4 / -11 )

Well, maybe I am in favour of everything you say if it means that my family, my friends and myself can all travel again freely without having to Quarantine. I am aware that we can all still carry the virus, but if we won't get seriously sick then fine with me, and fine with most people at a guess of explained to them properly. Fine, you go ahead and extend the misery of the majority.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

I finally, FINALLY got my ticket for vaccination in the mail, and when I called City Hall to make a reservation they said I would likely have to wait until September or later based the "City System", and that was not taking into account the shortage of vaccines. And don't forget, even WITH this passport, Japan wants to exclude them from having to quarantine overseas, but they will still demand foreigners coming to Japan (from the same countries that will exempt them) quarantine for two weeks.

And it being Japan, don't be surprised if it's a paper document with a bunch of hankos and MAYBE an IC chip, which they'll write some date on the back in pen for.... which will take a few months to get. Sheesh.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

@theResident

I'm not extending anyone's misery. It's a very damaging idea to buy into that somehow unvaccinated people are the enemy. The government has enforced crippling restrictions in the name of fear. I'm in favor of all people traveling freely. Please don't trade your freedom and throw everyone else under the bus by accepting the promise of "not getting seriously sick". That possibility will ALWAYS exist whether it's covid or not. We all die in the end so spending your precious life living in fear and expecting everyone else to as well is a hell of a way to live.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

Having the vaccination does not prevent you from either being a Carrier/Spreader or becoming ill and needing Hospital treatment. Its also statistically hard to prove that you would not have had to Hospital treatment without it, should you have caught the virus.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

But for young people, the risk of injury from these vaccines is higher than major illness and death from the virus itself.

Naaaaah, it's not.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

It's weasel clause put up by the government

Just because you say so? how about some institution, like in the whole world that says the same?

It is not like you pretend that all scientists and doctors in the world are wrong and only you knows this right? it may surprise you but you hold no authority to say this is not justified. It makes perfect sense, that is how the system is designed in order to detect anything that may or not be of importance, even if you clearly don't understand it.

So, anybody with real expertise that says the same thing? or again just you not understanding something?

2 ( +7 / -5 )

The only reason the vaccines were given EUA was they there could not be any other treatments available. But there were and are, so there is no ethical reason for pushing these vaccines onto the public while suppressing valid cures and prophylactics - or at least giving people the informed choice.

Exactly!

Whats more is Big Social media is censoring this truth. Even to delete US congressional hearings on the subject. How does this not raise red flags in many?

1 ( +7 / -6 )

@Jimizo

Go find your own links, please.

?

@Gooch

Links, please.

You do tend to be very coy on this score.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

JsapcToday  10:26 pm JST

But for young people, the risk of injury from these vaccines is higher than major illness and death from the virus itself.

And you know this how?

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

It is not like you pretend that all scientists and doctors in the world are wrong and only you knows this right? it may surprise you but you hold no authority to say this is not justified.

Yeah, really hard to know who to trust there, isn't it? The vast majority of scientists and doctors throughout the world, or... A random guy on the internet named after the area between the scrotum and the anus.

Though choice.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Exactly!

@Fizzbit

Can you give us some links?

You also tend to be very coy on this score.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

I happen to follow many experts in the fields that relate directly to this whole affair, many I agree with and others I don't for a different perspective to keep myself in check.

And yet you only choose to believe the minuscule minority "experts" that push completely unsubstantiated and dangerous claims. Interesting to say the least.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

All the links send you to YouTube videos by doctors who have been struck off for various experimental crimes. For example using Ivermectin to ‘cure’ COVID and getting lucky with the immune system of 1 out of 1000 people. Crackpot, crazed individuals who are just anti establishment. Same people who won’t use a mainstream bank, a mainstream mobile phone carrier, a mainstream supermarket chain, Google, Microsoft, Apple etc etc, because they think the whole make up of society is a conspiracy and convenience is somehow eroding their freedom. Paranoid idiots.

4 ( +9 / -5 )

I had to travel to Rwanda three months ago and got three PCR tests in seven days, all still accessible on the government’s online portal with QR codes and printable pdf, in English-French-Kinyarwanda languages. Got two tests on arrival in Japan and after three days at the quarantine hotel, and all I have is a small orange paper saying ‘negative’ without my name that allowed me to pass through the quarantine officer in Narita and was then taken back.

Kawasaki city actually sends inoculation vouchers already with the English next to Japanese, but hey let’s also apply at my ward for another paper with the same information but someone else’s hanko. If possible, by fax.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Well, here are some of them again. They've been posted before

And they're still all absolutely terrible! Joe Rogan's podcast isn't a proper source of information and never will be. Doctors who claim that vaccines are "Unnecessary, Ineffective and Unsafe" are insane and dangerous. This is deadly misinformation and reposting it anywhere is revolting. Then again, you are still named for the area between the scrotum and the anus, so I rest my case.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

Can a Japanese citizen who lives and works on a "green card" as an RN in California and who is fully vaccinated with Moderna and trained receive this passport?

2 ( +3 / -1 )

@theresident

and I don't think international travel/visiting Restaurants/Sports Venues can be defined as 'civil life'. They are privileges.

International travel for work/business, visiting sick or dying loved ones, attending funerals.....visiting restaurants to feed yourself, dine with friends, relatives and lovers, celebrate children's birthdays or entertain work clients.....attend sports venues to watch your children or family participate, or to gain your livelihood by engaging in professional sports are 'privileges'?

I think there are a lot of people who would strongly fight for thier human right to engage in these aspects of civil life.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

@theResident

Madness? Tyranny? Why is that? Its a piece of paper with your name/passport number and a note of brand/batch of vaccine. 

Because it discriminates against personal decisions to not take a non-approved FDA (and other medical agency) vaccine. Takes away individual rights. Not good.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

Because it discriminates against personal decisions to not take a non-approved FDA

No drugs in Japan need to be approved by the FDA. The rest of the world doesn't care about American rules.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

International travel for work/business

Why would other countries want to let the willingly unclean into their country? That's stupid. No country is going to care about your whining about 'rights', when you have none in their country.

visiting sick or dying loved ones, attending funerals.....visiting restaurants to feed yourself, dine with friends, relatives and lovers, celebrate children's birthdays or entertain work clients.....attend sports venues to watch your children or family participate, or to gain your livelihood by engaging in professional sports are 'privileges'?

Yep, all of them. These are things that the willingly unclean will survive through if not allowed to do, and therefore are privileges.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

Do you have to quarantine in a hotel upon return to Japan from the UK? Imagine that with kids.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

So this means that the travel ban as been lifted cause I can't wait any longer please

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

As a Turkish citizen, I want them to do this in reciprocity principle. Even tho I have got two shots of Biontech vaccine and I'm accepted as a seishain in a Japanese company I can't get my visa since February.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

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