Go To fiasco may see gov't paying Tokyoites' cancellation fees

This is the wrong time for this campaign and the money is OUR tax money being used!

Not happy here to say the least

So those of us who are doing the socially responsible thing by not traveling across the country for nonessential reasons during a pandemic are being made to pay for other people's holidays and holiday cancelations? Ridiculous.

Why did't the government just offer the money as a lifeline to these hotels and other leisure places. Instead they wanted to show how the virus was not a threat and they were better than everybody else. Now it has come back to bite them in the a$$ and they are still paying out the money, and nobody is happy about the situation.

Government waste at its finest.

Abe Mask and now Abe Travel both a complete waste of our tax money and both benefiting LDP buddy companies.

If you don't read Japanese, you would think think that poster was advising you what not to do, telling you how coronavirus is spread. Not a single person is weraing a mask, there is no social distancing, take a cruise. Is that a representation of the Diamond Princess? It could be considering how wrong everything else is in the poster and the campaign.

Has anyone resigned or been fired for this campaign yet? It is time to tell Abe and his Minister of Tourism where to Go To.

Abe and his crew just don't have a clue. I wouldn't mind, but it's our money they are playing with. The mask fiasco, followed by the Go to fiasco. They shouldn't be allowed anywhere near anything financial.

Invalid CSRF

I’ve seen better management by a kindergartner.

You have to feel sorry for the people of Japan with leaders that couldn’t even organise sex in Kabukicho with ¥100,000.

This goes far beyond a debacle. It’s not just the money they have thrown into the campaign. It’s all the extra time and money they are putting into mismanaging it. It’s just [another] comedy of errors that is costing Japan trillions of yen.

Why so Japanese government programs always insist on using strange English?

Go to

Three Cs

My Number

Cool Biz

.

.

.

obladiToday  07:06 am JST

Why so Japanese government programs always insist on using strange English?

Go to

Three Cs

My Number

Cool Biz

. Premium Friday

.

.

Abe team should be requested to pay these refunds with their own money.

LOL...so it's basically a cash stimulus provided by the people, for the people.

Well, I suppose the cancellation fees will have the intended purpose of funneling cash directly into tourism-related companies' pockets, so... problem solved? What a mess.

Yet another subsidy scheme,1??? why cant the travel agents just REFUND the customers, why do tax payers have to subsidize government screw ups!?????

How about helping the recent flooding victims in Kyushu rebuild their homes instead of subsidizing unaffected Tokyoites?

I thought that both the UK’s and US’s governments were scraping the bottom of the barrel in quality leadership.,but Japan’s is taking it to another level.

it is truly astonishing that the government can be so utterly inept.

Like others have said how come Abe has done an Houdini and basically disappeared?

Tummy trouble again or just total indifference to the plight of his minions?

This program seems to embody the goal prioritization, scenario analysis and contingency planning that we have come to expect of the Abe “administration.”

The governments real target is achieved which is to put more money in Dentsu for the “ campaign” , JTB and JAL for their “ services”...

Nothing would be easier to directly support the tourism business by giving the hotels and others direct subsidies.

Or finally use and pay hotels to host disaster victims, to pay restaurants, from as close by as possible to provide decent food.

And if it is decided Tokyo people should not travel give them vouchers for restaurants, including hotel restaurants.

5000 yen voucher if you spend 10.000 yen, 10.000 yen if you spend 20.000 yen....But also make the restaurants deduct 20% from the non subsidised part of the bill. They can handle that ( it Is only 10 % of the total bill) and contributes to more spending.

Ill thought through incompetence, the Government is not responsible for the cancellation fees, that will fall on the hard pressed tax payer, being left to footing the bill.  

The 1.35 trillion-yen travel campaign is designed to spur tourism, a sector pounded by the coronavirus outbreak that led to a nationwide state of emergency in spring.

The campaign will eventually subsidize up to half of all travel expenses, including accommodation and transport costs.

There are far more higher propriety spending considerations, family wage and income shortfalls, the continuing lack of affordable child care facilities along with pensioner medical care, business support programs that's just off the top of my head.

Why would any Government subsidize the nationwide spread of a second wave of this pandemic?

One flaming disaster after another. This pandemic has been a true test to politicians and authorities all over the world. You get to see their true colours and how good they really are at their jobs and whether they really do care about the well-being of their citizens. Some have done ok, and others, well, you can see for yourself.

Here's a wild idea for the clueless government.

Make the travel agents, airlines and hotels etc waive the cancellation fees. There really shouldn't even be cancellation fees in place during this pandemic anyway.

Yoshihide Suga said in a press conference, "I've been informed that measures to avoid causing inconvenience to people (who planned to use the program) are under consideration."

I've got a better idea. Hows about considering measures to avoid causing inconvenience to people (who pay taxes)? Why should the rest of the country pay to compensate Tokyoites who were too stupid to take note of Yuriko's recommendations to avoid traveling to and from Tokyo unless their journeys are absolutely necessary? Why should taxpayers (including sensible Tokyoites who stay put) compensate plonkers who thought a pleasure trip to a crowded, pestilence-infested metropolis would be a good idea?

The people who made this mess - the guvmint and the free-loading plonkers who jumped on the idea of a cheap trip to the ICU - should be the ones paying for it. Out of their own pocket, not the public purse.

Really? 200 cases in the whole county is a surge? In the US they have thousands of deaths a day. 

Comparing Japan to American is comparing apples to coal-fired power stations. By its own standards, Japan was doing OK and now is surging again. The land of freedumb to gather in large unmasked, closely packed crowds, whether it be for political rallies, social protests, demands for haircuts, a day at the beach or (Gawd 'elp us) Covid parties, is a totally different kettle of dead fish.

Being not so bad as the absolute worst example on the planet is no measure of success.

We’ve booked a hotel for Friday. While searching, we discovered most hotel put the price up a lot

I think it's called dynamic pricing. Thank those old devils, supply and demand.

We apologise most perfunctorily for our regrettable mistake above:

Gotta love the South Park graphics.

@Atomu and very few common sense people.

During a pandemy, why cancellation fees even exist when a single case anywhere can forfeit a week of accomodation?

Sorry but it has been since April in my country that tourism professionals have got rid of cancellation fees to become attractive and not fool their clients.

Amakudari to its finest level indeed !

I do not like Abe but Japan is handling the crisis well. 

Really?

What has Abe done to "handle" this pandemic? Just because you dont see the same "numbers" in comparison to other countries, Tokyo has yet to rid itself of the first wave, and since they "lossened" restrictions following the non-existent "lockdown/emergency" it's making another come back, as Abe sits on the sidelines doing absolutely nothing.

If doing nothing gives him a "handling the crisis well" thumbs up from you, please pass the blunt!

During all the planning, not a single person wondered what would happen if there was a resurgence in infections in some location, be it in a city or elsewhere, and how to handle it?

(Sarcasm alert!)

Come on! You gotta be joking here right? Japanese komuin and politicians only think ahead after the fact. Since it's not over yet, they are stuck on (still) bringing up the Diamond Princess infections.(On the news again last night!)

Hey look, a bad government idea...................What a shocker.

Oh look, more tax money being thrown away..................that's new.

Contradicting ideas in Japanese society...................this is beyond redundancy already.

*Why so Japanese government programs always insist on using strange English?*

Go to

Three Cs

My Number

Cool Biz

A lot of oversensitive English teachers complaining about the name of the campaign.

It's not really "go to travel" as in "I will go to travel" but rather Go to .... (Fill in a name of a place etc) Travel campaign.

At least that is what I understand by it.

Other names you mentioned, how are they strange exactly?

My comment got plenty of dislikes, most likely by the English teachers.

I am still waiting for a proper explanation why the English name is wrong...

Just look at the slogan: Go To ツラベル.

Can well be read like in "Go to trouble" instead of "travel".

Minor point, really, but I don't think a native Japanese speaker would think this. I'm not a native Japanese speaker, so somebody out there who is can correct me if I'm wrong. The katakana word for "trouble" is トラブル. Two of the four katakana letters are different. I think it's a bigger problem that a poster for promoting tourism looks like an organizational chart explaining the Japanese bureaucracy.

Sorry @klausdorth, masswipe is right. The katakana is always read as travel, not trouble

During all the planning, not a single person wondered what would happen if there was a resurgence in infections in some location, be it in a city or elsewhere, and how to handle it?

Geez! What else could this Abe led government come up with to show their total incompetence? Rhetorical question. It is a real pity that such a lot of Japanese people don't bother voting. This current shower in power should be firmly kicked into the long grass preferably never to be seen again! They couldn't organise themselves out of a brown paper bag even if they had typed, easy-to-follow instructions. Their handling of the whole coronavirus crisis has been a total fiasco from beginning to end.

Why so Japanese government programs always insist on using strange English?

Quite so! I wonder why this comment is such "strange English" too?

At this rate I can see Mr Abe sliding down the rating polls even faster than he was the other day.

Gotta love the South Park graphics.

What, they killed ツラベル™？But ツラベル™ was Kenny!!!

(ツラベル™ is unintellectual property. Travel is a homophone of Trouble. I'm not homophonic, just big boned).

They probably just got scared by the media ...

If they won't hold Olympia this will be a big desaster not only for Sportsman but for all the companies involved as well as for other possible places that would have profited.

Where I come from, if we want to come up with a slogan, we use our own language.

We’ve booked a hotel for Friday. While searching, we discovered most hotel put the price up a lot, so effectively we are not getting any discount and probably some useless food vouchers.

No surprises there. I'd dump those places. Make a reservation and then ask them to revert to their regular price. If they didn't, just cancel.

So while not only the white world locks down in waves ....hereabouts travel is promoted as a stimulus.

You calling Chinese white too? Guess you never figured out or heard that Japan never "locked down"

All people has encountered the serious pandemic, so we might not handle it sometime or often

maybe the reason why the government brought forward the travel campaign is to adapt 4 days holiday from this Thursday

But it might have been unplanned

the cancellation fees are needed to cover by government but the money is TAX.....

Sorry @klausdorth, masswipe is right. The katakana is always read as travel, not trouble

This is correct.

Anyways, they (Government) want this トラベル to be read as "travel"

However, it can also be read like in "trouble". 

This is incorrect. Trouble is transcribed into katakana as トラブル.

The Japanese Government is Wonderful. Wink! Wink!

"People won't be satisfied as it is," an official at the prime minister's office said.

lol

People won't be satisfied no matter what you do, so do what you want.

Play stupid games. Win stupid prizes.

*Anyways, they (Government) want this トラベル to be read as "travel"*

However, it can also be read like in "trouble". 

This is incorrect. Trouble is transcribed into katakana as トラブル.

Should have just used 旅行.

We’ve booked a hotel for Friday. While searching, we discovered most hotel put the price up a lot, so effectively we are not getting any discount and probably some useless food vouchers.

Government waste at its finest.

Look at it from the viewpoint of someone from Tokyo who prebooked a trip based on the promise of the subsidies and suddenly had the rug pulled out from under them. Should they really be on the hook for cancel fees?

Cancellation fees might actually be less than the subsidies the government would have paid for those trips

WTA... NO.

And this is how to waste tax money instead of making your citizens' lives better.

Strangerland:

This is incorrect. Trouble is transcribed into katakana as トラブル.

(3 downvotes)

Since when did virality trump veracity?

Let me guess...

Waste money of the fittest.

Wow. Foreigners whining about English usage. Scholars all. The Go To, seems a subsidy to the travel industry, more so the large agencies. Someone asserted restaurants should reduce the bill by 20% - that's completely mental, a sector of the community or business community that has been uprooted and quashed by the pandemic and you want a discount, that is a certain measure of the lack of a spirit of generosity and empathy. A complete lacking of charity. As for those complaining about the use of tax monies - the yen is a fiat currency, the government can print it at will. Refund of cancellation fees, certainly, covered by the government, sure, it is just a means of subsidy to one of many business sectors in financial trouble because of the pandemic. Instead of moaning about a needed subsidy, there should be a clamor for broader assistance instead of a selfish assertion denying it to any. As for domestic tourism - no one is compelled to vacation outside their prefecture or locale. That is a choice. Whatever the impulse or compulsion it is an individual act, being considerate is a very practiced art and should be held to during the ongoing pandemic. However, it is noticeable that certain folks are not 'in tune' with the notion of respect and being purposeful in deferring to required & needed protocols. No masks when interacting with counter help or waiters & waitresses, ignoring the constant peril of workers in the service economy and elsewhere. Blame Abe for that which is his responsibility. But, those who act contrary to existing protocols of which social distancing and stay in place are key bear responsibility for those actions. Don't shunt the blame onto an abstraction. This is not a culture of automatons.

i think one reason the English go to was chosen is because the 行く campaign could have various meanings.

the 行く campaign would probably be mocked.

Why so Japanese government programs always insist on using strange English?

Go to

Three Cs

My Number

Cool Biz

A lot of oversensitive English teachers complaining about the name of the campaign.

It's not really "go to travel" as in "I will go to travel" but rather Go to .... (Fill in a name of a place etc) Travel campaign.

At least that is what I understand by it.

Other names you mentioned, how are they strange exactly?

So while not only the white world locks down in waves ....hereabouts travel is promoted as a stimulus.

Looking at the numbers of people So far effected in this place it’s understandable, but looking further on..

Melbourne took fright with the same numbers of new daily cases as Tokio. Closing down the place.

I feel like Abe cannot get anything right these days, and is just being Billie d by the people

both corona numbers surging

Really? 200 cases in the whole county is a surge? In the US they have thousands of deaths a day. Japan has about 1,000 total.

I do not like Abe but Japan is handling the crisis well. This goto campaign though is another bafoonish idea...

I am not a fan of the Japanese government but saying they are handling the Coronavirus poorly is not correct in my opinion. As much as they are a bunch of bumbling idiots I think Japan is handling the pandemic well. As I said last week, this goto campaign is heading in the direction of the misguided "premium Friday" campaign....