Jack Tombes comments

I would also consider the environmental burden of disposable masks. This seems to escape most users, the masks are not free, nor fully sustainable either. Wearing one for ”just in case” is not a sustainable choice. I wonder why there is no discussion on this in Japan.

The problem is that foreigners do not FEEL that Japan is welcoming them!

They will not come, no matter how high the daily quota is raised.

If they lifted the cap to 100 million it wouldn't make a difference. 

Correct. Even today the entrants are lagging behind the current cap - why raise the cap except as a show of grand gestures that serves no-one. Official observers of nations with whom Japan has agreed on visa-exempt travel are probably going to raise the point again: claims on necessity due to health security lack all credibility.

Inbound tourism is export, outbound tourism is import.

Japan has huge trade deficits for the last months, but it seems no-one is connecting the dots.

Wonder why I’m wet… could it be because its raining?

Really convenient to be travel individually to places like LA and Honolulu. Japanese people are so lucky to be so welcomed across the world!

To add to the insult is the fact that such tours are NOT even conducted from many countries. Thus making it virtually impossible still to visit Japan, even if all the prerequisites were completed.

To me it appears as appeasement towards EU especially who has been demanding the lifting of unilateral visa restrictions, when the agreement is for visa-free travel. In that introducing Visa requirements for all is a step in the opposite direction.

The Japanese value reciprocity in customs highly. But how do they feel when visiting e.g. France now, knowing they would never be able to repay the gift of the visit as no French is able to visit Japan.

A moral dilemma indeed.

So the ratio of daily infections to (at-the-moment) hospitalization is about 1 to 1…?

Sounds fishy.

More important is to look at the rate of hospitalisations and deaths, these tell how much there is immunity in the population, to resist the adverse effects of covid-19.

The only way to end the pandemic is to reach immunity, there are 2 ways to do it: to get vaccinated or have the disease. Any ”infection control” measures simply delay the inevitable. Please get vaccinated.

By end of July Japan will have received approx. 100 M doses of Pfizer vaccine and (up to) 50 M doses of Moderna. According to sources there will ”only” be 70 M doses from July to September.

There are about 115 M adults to be vaccinated, each twice, so where is the problem? If 80% of adults show up to get the jab, the project will be done in September with current rates of 500-600 K 1st jabs per day.