Clients will be OK with wearing a mask indoors but wearing them 24 hours is a hassle. The cost of having a guide at all times may deter clients until later when they have more flexibility.

GBR48 Brutal ole chap, but bang on point! Nailed it.

Say it louder for the people in the back: these mandates are a product of xenophobia.

THIS!

Everyone wearing masks for a Covid virus that has never been isolated.

I wore a mask the entire length of my last visit to Tokyo and always have medical insurance. Not a problem. Quite a few nations in Asia have maintained mask use.

But nowhere else has the tours and the chaperones, not even New Zealand. It's a deal killer. It has nothing to do with viruses and public safety. It's all politics. I guess nobody in the Japanese tourist industry has the cash or the guts to sue the government for obstruction of business.

The rest of SE Asia will gladly accept Japan's very kind gift of $40bn+ of tourist trade per annum, and Japan can offer the world's most expensive school trips to the few daft enough to take them. Japan is off the tourist map for the foreseeable future. Maybe until the next PM. I don't doubt that many of the people of Japan are happy with that, but like Brexit - which is currently savaging the UK economy in all sorts of ways - there is always a price to pay. The loss of jobs, careers, livelihoods, retail, cool power and international standing. Nothing is free, and isolation is more expensive than you might expect.

It is Japan's right to run with Sakoku 2 if it wishes. Give us a shout if or when you want to rejoin the rest of the world again.

Look, Japan is so cheap now for tourists at 134 yen to the dollar and collapsing everyday, they will not mind wearing masks I'm sure. They will want to take advantage of all the dirt cheap goods and services available if you hold foreign currencies.

nakanoguy01: "have you seen a maskless person in japan? it's like spotting waldo in those book."

Wrong. Most of the people I saw today were wearing either no mask at all or had one warming their chins. In shops, some had them (they would pinch the front of the mask where all the moisture gathers to pull it up and down upon entering/exiting, but I saw few outdoors who had them on at all times. Went to a restaurant for lunch and people were boisterously talking and laughing, with masks down (none of the ""silence eating" you are supposed to do), no social distancing... nothing. These rules are 100% xenophobic because most don't follow them -- show me ONE Japanese person who wears a mask 24 hours a day, or who is chauffeured around at all times by a guide even if they are going to visit someone in another country, and that have to buy that nation's insurance.

It reminds me of my old sports gym where old guys would ask me if I knew the Japanese way to take a bath and then would just take off their clothes and pop right into the bath -- no showering first, and most not even splashing water over themselves with the little bucket thingy.

I've visited Japan 4 times over the years the last time was 2018 and was meant to return June 2020. I will not visit Japan again until all restrictions are removed, being on a guided tour would be our worst nightmare.

What are the chaperones going to say when foreign residents walk past them and their clients with no mask on, laughing their asses off.

Nobody told them they have to wear a mask 24 hours, so stop over-exaggerating. When in their hotel rooms, showering/bathing, and sleeping there is no need to wear one.

Japan! North Korea in the making!

The chaperone thing is ridiculous, very North Koreaesque, as is the outdoor mask-wearing ( that, however, may be just one of those famous J rules written on paper but rarely followed, common sense prevails, but if anything happens its on you as you broke the rule! The old responsibility dodge technique )

With the yen in free fall, maybe once again they just don't want the hassel or the bother of taking peoples money! Japan could be raking it in, but...... rules ;P

I saw an advert for trips from Thailand that someone posted on Facebook. The advert was titled "Fun back at Fuji" or something similar. It was in Thai so I couldn't read the details, but the trip clearly included a trip to the safari park at Fuji and to Disneyland. There were three dates, the first in July and the last in October. With Disneyland being included, it got me wondering about what they mean by "avoiding crowded spaces" and about the use of guides. At Disneyland, a family of four would need two guides if the two kids want to go on different rides. Presumably the 8000 yen entry fee for the guides is coming from us taxpayers.

These trips are clearly a joke in themselves and worthy of the North Korea comparisons. However, part of me suspects they are just an ostentatious display of the government being shincho (=cautious) to placate the naysayers. The decision to open the border with an actual date may have been taken already, with these trials just a PR exercise intended to shut all of the "shimpai" people up. As a parallel, Covid vaccinations in Japan only started after a tiny, timewasting trial in Japan on Japanese people. We can only speculate on how many Japanese people would have had the vaccine if the government did not have a piece of paper saying "Tested on Japanese!" The trial and these terrible sounding tours may be more necessary than we'd like to think due to this excessive need for reassurance hurdle.

Yeh of course! That is probably the reason they made the rules so strict and stupid in the first place so no-one will come!

Come on July elections!

With the USD so strong against the JPY, it would be a great time for a long visit, but 50% of the reason I'd want to visit Japan is to engage with Japanese people and old friends.

I have little interest in being lead around by the nose like a water buffalo in a field. That isn't the Japan I'd like to see.

have you seen a maskless person in japan? it's like spotting waldo in those book.

Not really. I see more and more maskless Japanese all the time. There aren't many out and about, but the number is gradually growing, especially on bikes. Coz they know the virus doesn't spread if they're travelling faster than 7km/h.

In any case, I can't see these tours attracting too many people. They're way too restrictive.

how can it be xenophobia when Japanese people are also asked/forced to follow these rules? have you seen a maskless person in japan? it's like spotting waldo in those book. forced to have insurance? check. and the only reason they need a chaperone present at all times is so tourists can be directed to the nearest hospital or clinic if they become infected.

this over reaction from the foreign community in japan is the typical knee jerk reaction to everything the j-gov does.

Say it louder for the people in the back: these mandates are a product of xenophobia. They're all but treating tourists like lepers. Who in their right mind would fork out money for a trip with so many restrictions born from blatant discrimination? Japan will once again lose out on drawing tourists in this year because it just can't get over their superiority complex. Their loss. What would be spectacular is if all countries issued the same requirements for only Japanese passport holders or even better, banning them from entering their borders as tourists. Fair's fair after all.