Even with everyone working, we can't keep up.

Whose initiative to let those tourist come to Japan? JGovt. Just don't forget about it.

There's no congestion at the segregated Japanese counters. The arrangement at Narita, at least, is to minimize the wait times of Japanese passport holders and to maximize the wait times of gaijin. How about having only one or two boothes open for J nationals and send the extra officers over to the gaijin side to speed things up?

There's no congestion at the segregated Japanese counters. The arrangement at Narita, at least, is to minimize the wait times of Japanese passport holders and to maximize the wait times of gaijin.

Exactly. And how about treating those that live here and pay taxes here the same as Japanese? No need to fingerprint and photograph us. If you allow THAT, the congestion would decrease, instead of lumping all foreigners together regardless of whether they pay taxes here or not.

Japan could have 100 million tourists a year and still have the same number of immigration counters at Narita.

As ALWAYS, Blame anything and everything on tourists instead of embracing them. People come to visit because they wish to share their good times and memories with this nations only to be blamed for everything that goes WRONG as if it's their fault.

I remember last time was processed at Narita it was very smooth, staff were every where assisting.

One section for Japanese Nationals, another for Permanent residents, then another for tourists among other types of Visas which has the longest lines but moving fast.

If and when the Japanese res. section gets empty or not as crowded they start moving people to that section regardless.

Clean, fast, well organized operation as far as I can remember.

I've not been to Narita for a while but struggled to find the re-entry counter at Haneda recently. It was off to the extreme left but wasn't well signposted. People not going to the wrong counter will speed things up.

Three years of almost no international travel into or out of the country and they didn't do anything to prepare for the resurgence of travelers.

Just as expected. Never learning from situations or making necessary adjustments beforehand.

Remember, in 2019 the number of international travelers was going through the roof and similar bottlenecks were happening then too.

No problem, who doesn't have the time to wait those short 2 hours for entering Japan, has no real interest in this country and can feel free to return immediately and go elsewhere. BTW we waited every werkend as youngsters 4 hours to get into our favorite dance club or discotheque, and what a surprise, we all have survived the long waiting times.

Sounds like they need to employ more staff to cope with the additional tourist numbers. People coming to Japan from the States, Australia and especially Europe have just had to sit on a very long flight and then having to stand around waiting for 2 hours, that's a huge annoyance - especially if they have young children in tow. Adapt to the changes and get more staff onto it, if not, people won't bother coming again.

Can't be helped since number of immigration counters probably can't be increased (much) so rate of processing of incomings cant be increased much also.

The systems in place have been inadequate for years. They may blame the recent influx, but even more than a decade ago we encountered similar problems, but not, thankfully for two hours plus.

Of course there should be more staff, but my personal recommendation is to introduce some kind of lounge area so that instead of having to wait in line, passengers may sit and relax a little if they choose to.

It always takes me no more than 5 minutes to finish everything... Thanks immigration officers!

Mortals, Mortals, perhaps I will never ever get to understand them. I don't blame you but self. When no or less tourists, we demand more for more tourists! When we get more tourists, again we can't handle such high number it's causing over tourism. Which begs the question what really satisfy mortals? Because whining never ends.

Correct me if I am wrong, but was it not reported recently that they were going to do away with the line for re-entry passport holders and they were going to have to line up with the incoming tourists? That would almost make me not want to travel. Someone above said if people really want to visit Japan, they won't mind waiting 2 hours. But how about those of us who live here and just want to get back home? Why are we forced to wait while Japanese get to sail through. If such a situation happens, my wife breezes through a line with only a few people, then also has to wait two hours for me to get processed, no benefit for her either.