Japan to cut 7-day quarantine period for those entering country to 3 days

But Japanese government officials have lately been discussing how much the restrictions, initially designed to keep the inflow of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus to a minimum, can be relaxed

……

Omicron is all over Japan.

The measures taken, failed miserably!

self-quarantine at home or other accommodation facilities will end after people test negative for COVID-19 on the third day, the sources said.

These are two very different thing, being stuck in a 1 tatami mouldy hotel with the same bento three times a day or going home and staying home for three days. So which is it?.

"shortening the quarantine period" , Yippee, great news, Can finally head home and return with relative ease

the border controls have done nothing to stop or slow the spread of the omicron variant in japan. it just feeds into the narrative that japan is a xenophobic country.

Does this set of politicians think that everyone is as stupid as they are? They make an announcement that they are allowing more people into the country this equates to 50 people each day. It also calculates to 150,000 students who say they cannot enter Japan because of the restrictions. in turn those who I wanted to enter Japan to see family will have to wait even longer.

It should also be questioned as to why there is a quarantine period at all if people are fully vaccinated, The three days they speak about holds no weight in the medical field, it is a figure that is plucked out of the air of some ridiculous politician in Japan.

As Japan is now one of the worst countries in the world for omicron you have to wonder what they have to fear.

It is nothing new prime minister that is needed in Japan but a whole new structure of government. What is in place now not only fails the people it fails the country also. It would be beneficial to them if they were to peer on national television and apologise to everyone within the country for the failure that they have overseen with regard to this virus. They have destroyed families destroyed careers and destroyed business in some ridiculous hope that the virus would not enter Japan.

The article yesterday mentioned vaccinated people can skip quarantine. What happened today?

I was under the impression that 2 shots was "fully vaccinated"

We were all told the same, I have a document from my kuyakushou stating I am fully vaccinated with two doses.

I’ll fly and stopover in a country with low Covid and then travel to Japan-I’m not doing the one hotel room quarantine again-never!

@Bronco : Told you this would be announced this week and that being triple vaccinated would be a condition. You told me I was completely wrong, the main reason being that the vaccinations were 'not legally recgonised' in Japan. Well, that may be true, but clearly not reason enough. Still, my booster is booked and I will he taking advantage of this.

With the ease of the quarantine, everyone will jump on the plane tickets and indeed, flights will be difficult to book

BarryToday  07:25 am JST

Does this set of politicians think that everyone is as stupid as they are? They make an announcement that they are allowing more people into the country this equates to 50 people each day

You mean 1500 a day.

You might read again the article

Cor... Vlad III. Comrade, you have used a lot of words there.

Of course vaccination free travel will return, but not for a while yet. And.. We never said you'd 'die'.

Ok that means the experiment is not over yet and we still have to face the 3 day detention at hotels with the cold bentos left outside the door.

Oh and the special charter flights taking 10-20 people to different parts of Japan for quarantine when Tokyo, Chiba hotels are full.

Complete waste of tax payers money!

Considering and doing are not the same.

Don't count your chickens under their hatched.

Japan appears to be opening up.

Let's wait and see

If my understanding of this article is correct, that do not count for tourists.

accept foreign nationals wishing to enter Japan for non-tourism purposes

This counts only for residents and travelers with business purposes.

So if you are a business traveler, you must clearly proof at the immigration counter that you are on a business purpose.

That means you should maybe show an invitation from a company in Japan or something like that.

Then additional, you must proof that you are 3 times vaccinated.

So the 3 days quarantine is just for 3 times vaccinated, business travelers and residents, with valid proofs of these requirements.

And additional, they just change the amount from 3500 people to 5000 people a day, who are allowed to enter Japan. (Anyway I have no idea how they count the people).

In my opinion, this is not a big ease of the entry restrictions.

But I will wait for tonight's announcement from Kishida.

I said this yesterday, but this is mostly residents coming back in, not new non-Japanese entrants. This policy is about how Japan treats residents, not tourists who still can't come.

An important thing to remember about residents is that will have been vaccinated in Japan itself where the vaccine rollout was slow. This means very few under 60 are likely to have had a third booster shot from their local authority. I'm 53 and got my shots on the first days allowed, which meant a second shot on August 18. With the booster program only just starting and six months not up until tomorrow, I am behind a big queue of older people for a booster. If the government makes three vaccinations mandatory for skipping quarantine, it will merely punish lots of people for the government's own muddling in getting the vaccination and booster programs started.

As Barry says, three days for the quarantine is random. There is also no talk about public transport. As things stand, if you need an internal flight or other long journey to go home, you will be stuck in Tokyo for a week.

Sorry but Covid is over! It’s been over!

The anti-mandate extremists have been blasting the above on social media for months, some of whom also claimed the virus was somewhere between a hoax and just another flu/sniffles. They have dismissed the seriousness of a pandemic that has killed nearly 60,000,000, but said that was OK because everyone dies eventually and it's mainly people they do not know who've been harmed by it, and further dismiss those who've been harmed because those killed by the virus might have been obese, and/or had underlying conditions or some other justification for dismissing them and those who cared about them.

Though their anti-democracy hero Stalin probably never did say: "one death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic" the extremists sentiment is similar to what Stalin might or might not have said. They care absolutely zip for people they deem to be 'others'. Then the extremists moan they are being discriminated against because of personal choices they have made not to get vaccinated.

@Baroque

My understanding is a little bit different

B. Anyone entering as a non-tourist foreign National who IS vaccinated may not need to quarantine. 

My understanding:

a non-tourist foreign National who IS vaccinated 3 times must quarantine for 3 days.

C. . Anyone entering as a non-tourist foreign National who IS NOT vaccinated will need to quarantine for three days. 

My understanding:

Anyone entering as a non-tourist foreign National who IS NOT vaccinated will need to quarantine for seven days. 

This article is not really clear.

It says *The government may scrap the quarantine period altogether on condition that new entrants can satisfy the requirements, including having been vaccinated three times, according to the sources.*

May scrap means: probably.

So nothing is for sure.

So better wait for tonight's official announcement from Kishida.

I hope everything is back to normal by July. I just wanna visit Canada in the summer. Drive to Narita (or possibly Haneda) and get on the plane without having to get a swab up my nose or someone asking me about Vaccine status. Same thing in Canada and when I return. No Jab passport. Back to normal. Stop harassing me!

@Bronoc 

was under the impression that 2 shots was "fully vaccinated"

Well, pandemics, like almost everything in nature, change or evolve over time, and thus human responses to these events must also change to stay effective. 3 is the new 2.

Someone didn't pay attention in science class!

Time to book that ticket to Koh Samui?

All this "us versus them" bickering gets you folks nowhere.

My 2 cents.

Always late to the party Japan.

Clockwork as usual.

So there are 150,000 students needing to get into Japan and they are only allowing 5000 a day, so even if every plane was filled with students needing to enter the country it will take 30 days to get them all in, which isn't going to happen. Japan is going to be backed up for months until they raise that cap.

This! I have a job waiting, and my Japanese wife and I need to be allowed to move back to live and work.

@letsberealisticToday  09:41 am JST

What about for those Japanese people with non-Japanese partners? 

Does anyone know?

What difference does that make if you still can’t even enter the country

Giving in to pressure again. Total nonsense. This virus needs 7 days to show up.

@Wobot - But there is a difference. So, you can continue with a longer quarantine than me. Them the rules :) I don't make them.

Omicron is all over Japan.

The measures taken, failed miserably!

What's cute is countries that have opened up with no restrictions/quarantine for vaccinated arrivals, have continued seeing decline in cases.

Japan is just simply illogical.

3 days doesn’t make any difference. If the person tests negative to a rapid antigen test and is vaccinated there should be no quarantine. A 3 day quarantine is just paper quarantine to make it look like they are doing something. Omicron already has a strong presence in Japan. Visitors are more worried about catching it in Japan than bringing it with them.

What an inefficient political class,so basically they spread all this xenophobia among the population telling them with their propaganda from the very beginning of the pandemic that the virus was a foreign problem and some “experts” which I clearly remember suggested that Japanaese might be even less prone to get the Covid.

Then with a pure illogic and inhumane way the government decided to shut down the borders to foreigners and not matter how long they lived here or if they havr family they couldn’t return to their beloved but Japanese nationals had a white card to get out and in from the country which was criticized by all the other countries and the WHO as well for it’s non scientific sense.

And YET the Covid is all around us and spread by Japanese.

The government may scrap the quarantine period altogether on condition that new entrants can satisfy the requirements, including having been vaccinated three times, according to the sources.

despite the JGov botching the 3rd booster shots for people in japan.....more keystone government by Japan

We will see! Japan's leadership is weak when it comes to making serious decisions unless it is to save their necks from another scandal.

In warning to U.S., COVID rates soar after Denmark lifts all restrictions

https://www.yahoo.com/news/in-warning-to-us-covid-rates-soar-after-denmark-lifts-all-restrictions-183342093.html

Since lifting the ban in February, Denmark has continued to record more COVID-19 cases per capita than nearly anywhere else in the world, and both COVID hospitalizations and deaths have shot up by about a third.

“Not looking good in Denmark,” Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Translational Institute, tweeted Sunday, sharing several charts that terminated in near-vertical upward lines. “Deaths are now 67% of peak, with a steep ascent.”

Denmark pramaturely brought a resurgence of infection, hospitalization and death upon itself — and anyone who follows in the country’s footsteps risks doing the same.

I can just imagine the AP photo editor, gets like 20 photos of an empty airport calling the photographer on the phone. "Just get some some freaking photos with like 10 people at the airport."

Photographer waits 4 hours to have 1 photo with 11 people in it, before 2 almost step out of frame. Cop and Security guard count? The airport has to be the safest place in Japan with cops and security guards making up 18% of the people.

@justasking

What's cute is countries that have opened up with no restrictions/quarantine for vaccinated arrivals, have continued seeing decline in cases.

Japan is just simply illogical.

Nope, entirely wrong! Read my post above!

Elvis is here

Why is 2 doses not enough?

lol. Your becoming predictable. If you don't know the answer to your question by now then you are just trolling. Do an internet search on 'confirmation bias' if you have time.

They keep moving the goal posts because the vaccines are not working as intended. They initially said that the vaccines had 95% efficacy and was going to prevent transmission and infection, however the data is showing that the vaccines are not even close to 95% efficacy and are not preventing transmission and infection. So, here we are.

They can keep moving the goalposts as much as they want if it means I can travel without quarantine. Fortunately rather than whingeing about my 'rights' and staying on top of the situation ,my third vax is in 2 weeks which put me on schedule to travel with minimal restrictions from March 18th. Magic. Get to see people I've missed for 2 years. Get to eat in restaurants I've missed for 2 years. All it took was an injection in my arm of some perfectly harmless but immune building liquid!

So here we are. Covid is at its worst ever here in Japan. Record new cases everyday, every week. Deaths …. Children are leading the surge. Hospitals countrywide are over stuffed. So called healthy , young , and strong teenager refused admission to a hospital in Saitama on multiple occasions from 2/2 until he died on 2/9. Full blown symptomatic and was refused admission. RIP. So the jgov is going to undo the only restriction that was enforceable. “Open it up.” Who are these people claiming Japan has been “locked down.” Life has been business as usual for over 2 years now. So instead of rolling back the border restrictions, with the numbers through the roof, Omicron being the most deadly variant of Covid in Japan to date, the entire healthcare system near its breaking point, yes ! When a perfectly healthy teenager is refused admission to the hospital, the system is near collapse! Hundreds of thousands are in hotels or sent home to isolate and recover. There’s no recovery from death. Go ahead you cult of naysayers, say that his death was acceptable as collateral damage. It’s not time to open the borders quite yet. It’s time to lock the entire country down! Stop propping up big business who doesn’t need to any more flush with cash than they already are. Shut down the entire country . Public transportation … schools…. All but essential businesses. 3-4 weeks should do it. 2 + yrs have already been completely wasted to get us to the worst point of the pandemic. What’s 3-4 weeks ? Failing would be better than the status quo. It’s better to be wrong and do something than to be right and do nothing. Is it really okay to some of you that Covid is mainly killing off the elderly? Those with other medical conditions? Healthy teenagers ?

@Numan

Denmark doesn’t seem to have a Delta wave, that’s why their cases are like that.

Compare Japan with countries with similar waves, like the Philippines. Philippines and Japan Omicron cases started at the same time. Philippine cases started going down three weeks later, while Japan is still breaking records 7 weeks later.

Philippines already opened up, and cases are still going down. What’s the difference? Booster shots. Not quarantines.

@ steven-mccarthy: dude, do you just copy and paste the same comment in every article here? You WILL NOT GET your lockdown, no matter how many comments.

@ Patrick , dudette, did you read my post or get stuck on “lockdown?” My mother passed away in July (natural causes) Because of strict border control, specifically quarantine rules, I could not go to her funeral. So I clearly understand the frustrations of the border and so on. But it is what it is and right now is NOT the time to adopt the “daijobu” attitude. That’s precisely what’s wrong here. People have the physical power to get this contained. They just lack willpower.

what are 3 days supposed to do? it's not even an incubation period

@sf2k: Could be zero days if you read the article. You can't stop it anyway - what you can do is to implore people to get triple vaxxed. This is a good stick.

Is that you FFS? I read world news daily . Normalcy? Other than the border, what hasn’t been “normal” for you in Japan ? I’ll give you one thing that doesn’t compare to any other country; In Japan, omicron is the deadliest variant of Covid. That’s unique here . I’ve never remotely suggested I “want” a lockdown. That’s spin .

I overcame omicron myself (mild cold). I'm unvaccinated. 70% of vaccinated co-workers fell ill, some of them with quite problems.

As it says in article if you are vaccinated three times you do not need quarantine? Is this a candy because you have met the quota for manufacturer? Because otherwise such measures are simply ridiculous.

Why is 2 doses not enough?

> I was under the impression that 2 shots was "fully vaccinated"

> How can anybody be more vaccinated than "fully"?

My impression is that it is intended to punish people that "didn't get vaccinated soon enough". Or, for example, you held out on getting the first two vaccine shots because you wanted a guarantee that all restrictions would be immediately dropped and that the governments would actually be taking steps to return to normalcy. That didn't happen, in fact governments including Japan ended up introducing more restrictions after the original Fauci target goal of 2/3rds the population getting the vaccine.

What a joke. Japan at its worst.

@Mirchy: So - just want to confirm you paid for a private blood test that CONFIRMED that you have antibodies in your blood specific to Omicron?

What happens if you're traveling with your kids? Do they need to be vaccinated?

Compare Japan with countries with similar waves, like the Philippines. Philippines and Japan Omicron cases started at the same time. Philippine cases started going down three weeks later, while Japan is still breaking records 7 weeks later.

Philippines already opened up, and cases are still going down. What’s the difference? Booster shots. Not quarantines.

Interesting indeed! Thanks.

Might look into it later time permits but a quick look at the worldometer graphs shows start of rapid increase to peak and down in just a little over two weeks

.

Forgot the link:

Philippines daily cases graph:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/philippines/#graph-cases-daily

My wife's mother has terminal cancer and we are desperate to visit her in Tokyo. We live in the UK and she hasn't met her grandchildren yet. At present, is only my wife allowed to travel?

What happens if you're traveling with your kids? Do they need to be vaccinated?

Being vaxed not needed to come in, afaik, but needed for quarantine waiver

@theResident: Ha! You asked the right question. The official PCR test was positive. You convinced me to go for an antibody test (20 €). If the antibodies turn out not to be present, well....., then we can imagine what a charade it is all together. Stay well!

The should keep the borders closed until the prospect of a lockdown or emergency declaration is over.

@Mirchy - The right clinic can actually confirm if you had Omicron - Not just any variant of SarsCov2.

Finally Japan is moving forward.

@theResident: After all, I don’t care what version it was. At infection with omicron you were not supposed to lose the taste and smell, which I did for one week, delta was also possible.

I overcame omicron myself (mild cold). I'm unvaccinated. 70% of vaccinated co-workers fell ill, some of them with quite problems.

Then please don't make statements like that above.