Simon comments

@SteveMcCarthy

Holy crap man now you have to worry about monkeypox in addition to Covid. Damn

After what I witnessed over the past 2+ years I will never trust the Japanese again. When the chips are down they will stab you in the back.,.

Just when you think JGov cant get more silly they go ahead and pull this out of the hat. Wow just wow

I'd love to join the bus tours right but I'm currently waiting for my visa to North Korea to come through. I wish Marshal Kim utmost success in destroying devil virus so I can visit glorious country soon

@ Steven Mccarthy

You WILL be infected with COVID sooner or later even if you go about in a hazmat suit. Booooo

In a couple of years we will be reading how extreme fear and restrictions associated with COVID have had lasting implications for kids and younger people. You will hear terms like "social anxiety", "extreme shyness" and "agoraphobia" being used. Yeah COVID is bad but so is isolation and pause in social development and worse of all the anxiety of living in constant fear of catching something (there is a term for it: germophobia). Japan was already one of the most socially awkward societies (Hikkomoti anyone?) sadly you'll be faced with new generation of anxious, fearful and isolationist kids who will be your future politicians...

Please help. I feel afraid too much anxiety to exit home. Can Omicron enter from windows? I closed everything shut off everything but still worry. I m stress.

These entry restrictions have never been about COVID or public health, just politics and tribal BS pure and simple. The real tragedy is by continuing to pander to their inner fears the Japanese government is poisoning its own society far beyond COVID for years to come. They are scapegoating foreigners now (as has been the norm by Japanese politicians for centuries) but in the long term this will only make their own people more fearful, anxious and afraid far after COVID is a distant memory. What goes around comes around...