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JAPAN'S TOURIST EXPERIMENT SUCKS!

nrussellgib

It certainly has been a week of ups and downs, and sometimes I must admit that I feel like I’m just repeating myself, but there is always something to highlight whether good or bad, it is important to stay in the loop. I keep on reminding myself that although Japan continues to be closed to tourists and it’s frustrating, we are nearly halfway done with 2022 and I am optimistic that tourism will return before the end of the year.


In this update we continue to look at what’s been happening behind Japan’s closed borders, look at a huge change in entry policy starting in June and hopefully some of these stories and information will continue to give indicators regarding when Japan will actually reopen or how it might look for us tourists once Japan does indeed open up! We might not have a definitive answer to “When will Japan’s tourism return” but it seems that with each update we get a little bit closer... or not?


Team, It’s now been about 2 weeks since the Golden week public holiday and although numbers initially seemed to be going up, Japan confirmed 37,438 new cases on Friday, which is actually down by around 2000 from last week. Additionally the number of patients with severe symptoms also continues to fall.


Even Tokyo which reported 3,573 new cases is starting to see a potential slowdown, with 536 less cases compared to last week too, Cases in the capital have been falling now for seven straight days.


The situation seems to be under control and improving, but it seems that Japan continues to be reluctant to open up to the world, or at least will do so in her terms.


This week’s headlines regarding tourism reopening have been rather interesting. Some news outlets are being realistic by highlighting Japan’s drip-drop approach to reopening her borders, whilst others are kidding themselves by stating that Japan has or will reopen to tourists in the month of June.


I want to make one thing clear: From the information currently available, this does not seem to be the case. And perhaps those news outlets rejoicing that Japan has reopened for tourism are actually not technically wrong... Japan has reopened for .... Approximately 50 tourists starting this month and potentially increasing this number or changing strategy in June.


I, however, would not confidently proclaim that Japan has reopened to tourism! Not just yet anyway!


In this update I’ll try to balance out the more negative or ‘slow news’ with some things that are happening that could, maybe, who knows .. change Japan’s approach.


On Tuesday, Japan’s tourism agency said in a statement that small, guided tour groups from the United States, Thailand, Singapore and Australia, would be allowed to visit Japan AS A TEST. With tourists needing to have been fully vaccinated and have the booster shot too.


In principle this test of sorts will allow officials to gather information about whether the country can reopen its borders safely to more tourists in the future.


Visitors taking part in the test will be required to follow safety guidelines and will be accompanied throughout their stay by tour guides, according to Japan’s tourism agency.


Team, this actually seems to be the resurrection of a pilot program that was originally supposed to begin last fall, and it is in my opinion unfortunate that this pilot program has been resurrected when things are so different. The situation in Japan last fall, compared to the current situation, with more hospital capacity, antiviral medication at hand and a booster program now at over 57% should have meant a different strategic approach, but maybe I’m wrong on this one.


It makes me wonder how lost in translation Kishida’s words in his address to the City of London earlier this month actually was.


“At the end of last year, Japan strengthened its border control measures in response to the global spread of the Omicron variant. It was an essential public-health step to delay the variant's entry into the country. This allowed us to fortify our healthcare system and promote vaccinations. I hope it is not too boastful to say that Japan's response to COVID-19 has been one of the most successful in the world.


We have now eased border control measures significantly, with the next easing taking place in June, when Japan will introduce a smoother entry process similar to that of other G7 members”.


Kishida mentioned an entry process similar to other G7 members starting in June, yet the majority of the countries included in this so-called tourism experiment are not part of the G7. Perhaps those countries' markets make up a significant portion of potential inbound future tourism and this might be the reason for this?


Anyway, on that note the government announced on Friday that it would double its daily limit on foreign arrivals to 20,000 a day from June 1st.


Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno at a news conference said that about 80% of travellers from around the world, which would make up most countries, would not be required to provide proof of negative COVID tests, nor would they have to quarantine on arrival, including travellers from all G7 member countries.


"We believe (the review) will make the entry of visitors smooth," he said.


Countries will be put into three categories depending on the assessed virus risk, however the list of countries by category was not yet available as of the recording of this update but I will share on twitter or as a community post once it is.


Travellers from the lowest risk "blue" group will need a pre-departure negative test result but will be exempt from testing upon arrival in Japan and will not need to quarantine at home.


Those coming from a "yellow" group country, will need to be tested upon arrival and stay for three days at home or in a quarantine facility. Travellers who have received their third vaccine dose will be exempt from this.


And travellers arriving from a “red” group country will be asked to take COVID-19 tests when they enter Japan and stay for three days at quarantine facilities.


Matsuno said that the experience gained in these trials would be used in later decisions to further reopen. And when asked about tourism he simply said that preparations are underway.


Team, 50 people entering for so-called ‘tourism’ is indeed very disappointing, but it does give me some hope to think that Japan has chosen to start this tourism experiment in the month of May when they could easily have chosen to do so in the month of June. Perhaps we will indeed hear some further positive news in the coming month, we will have to wait and see.


Although Japan’s doubling of daily entry to 20,000 people is in my opinion a lost opportunity for completely removing the entry cap. With this easing comes some very positive opportunities. This doubling of entrees will mean that those still waiting to enter for non-tourist reasons will hopefully enter sooner, therefore relieving a backlog of people in the month of June, paving the way for a less hectic entry of future tourists.


And doubling inbound capacity will also help to ramp up procedures at airports and iron out Japan’s new three tier system of entry.


Team, it’s also incredibly positive to know that Japan has introduced a system that will welcome those without a vaccine too.


“Regardless of the vaccination status of the entrants/returnees, on-arrival test, home quarantine and other measures are not required.” – MOFA May 20th and it doesn’t get more official than that!


This will open up Japan to a larger group of people once tourism does restart and is certainly a very big precursor that was needed to be implemented before tourism restarted, and here it is.


Additionally, the Japanese government has also changed its stance on masks, saying that wearing them when outdoors is not always necessary, provided people are not talking. Another important factor that was needed before tourism restarts.


I do feel that the next step must surely be the complete removal of the entry cap, and although I did start thinking this might not be the positive update I wished to give. It turns out that in retrospect there are many small factors at play, things that in my opinion needed to happen before tourism restarted are finally starting to happen! Perhaps it’s not a lost cause after all!


What are your thoughts on this Team? Are all these small steps finally going to lead to tourism restarting in the next two months or so? Let me know in the comment section. I look forward to reading what you have to say.


The European Union Commission has provided an analysis of the measures taken by Japan and South Korea,


A report by SchengenVisaInfo.com, says that the E.U is emphasising that all countries on the EU visa-free list waive their visa requirement for citizens of all EU Member States and that this is something that remains a fundamental principle of the EU visa policy.


The report goes on to say that diplomatic efforts have not yet led to a full change of policy in Japan, which continues to have restrictions for all travellers from the EU, only allowing entry for essential purposes, meaning that EU citizens still are not permitted to enter Japan for tourism.


“The Commission considers that progress can be better achieved through continued engagement and diplomatic contacts and that at this stage it would not be appropriate to adopt suspension measures for any categories of nationals of Japan,” the Commission highlights.


In addition, it was also noted that the EU will step up its diplomatic engagement with the authorities of Japan in order to lift the non-essential travel ban for EU travellers and restore full visa-waiver reciprocity ahead of travel normalisation.


It is positive to note that at the 28 EU-Japan Summit that was held on May 12th, both sides have said that they would continue to work to restore visa-waiver reciprocity. With the situation being monitored by the EU, which will take appropriate action depending on developments.


Whoa, Team, perhaps this is the best pressure Japan can get. It sounds to me that the EU isn’t exactly happy that things are not reciprocal when it comes to travel. Japanese tourists can enter freely, yet European Union citizens cannot travel to Japan. It will indeed be interesting to see if the EU does indeed take ‘appropriate action’ and how this would look if Japan does not change its policies soon. It would however be useful to know if the EU has set any kind of deadline for changes to happen. And this does make me wonder whether other countries are putting any kind of pressure for reciprocity to be restored too. What are your thoughts on this team? Will it make a difference?


OK, I was a little reluctant to include this next story as I was originally only going off one news outlet. In recent days there have been some stories regarding roadmaps which seem to be based mostly on speculation, and not necessarily backed up by facts and although some of the information from some articles can be accurate we must be careful that it does not mask inaccuracies and speculation.


Therefore I would like to make it clear that this next bit of information is by no means official but rather a JATA roadmap. I just wanted to mention it as I am keeping a close eye on many roadmaps that have come to light but will not report until I feel confident in the news. So to summarise.


On May 17, the Japan Travel Agency Association (JATA) updated its roadmap for the resumption of travel.


In the new roadmap, JATA predicts that travel will resume in stages from June, and that normality will likely resume sometime after September. To sum it up, nothing is clear at the moment, and we still have to wait for upcoming announcements.


END


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