Foreign tourists shun Japan over COVID-19 rules, rising infections | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

14 comments

1. Kishida “come to Japan” said in UK in June sure aged like milk.

2. So can actual tourists get in yet, or is it still the NORK-style chaperone thing?

3. Geez, I wonder why. What could possibly be done to change this? Perhaps we’ll never know.

4. What a mystery they got here? 🤔
   I wonder how it can be solved.

5. What exactly is the chaperone supposed to achieve WRT COVID prevention?

   Because if a tourist shows up infected, they’re going to pass on the virus to other people in Japan regardless of if they’re staying in a hotel they chose themselves or if they’re stuck with a tour group.

6. I’m pretty sure Japan is basically waiting for China to open up, at that point they’ll do whatever China want since Chinese were the largest tourist group.

   I never thought a Democratic country being led by example of an Autocracy and applying rules of a Communist Totalitarian regime (North Korea)

7. In a bittersweet irony, a petty part of me is kinda glad that they went full Sakoku over the last two years. There is *zero* logical way to blame the gaijin for the current infection wave, even if the 8k tourists infected 10 people each, that’s less than half the infections *a day* now.

   And you just *know* the gaijin would be the first in line of blame.

8. Just this past week I had a group of friends message about coming to see me since they’ve been traveling a bunch recently, had to explain to them they still can’t come. Parents who I haven’t seen in three years at this point are meeting me in Vietnam instead of here.

9. Funny, I don’t think that’s it…

10. Remove those restrictions and you’ll only see a rise in infections. Can’t have one without the other!

11. From the article:

    «The official also noted that some restaurants and tourist facilities in Japan are refusing to accept foreign guests as an anti-virus measure, making it more difficult for the company to arrange inbound tours.»

    Well that’s ironic given that even with their silly “look at us we all wear our stupid mask all the time” and this kind of xenophobic BS, the country manages to top worldwide the number of positive cases. At this point, they should grow a brain for rationality and even maybe start to accept the foreign guests and reject the locals lol.

12. a buddy of mine is leaving this weekend and I don’t think he signed up for a tour group he said he knew someone there but I doubt that matters what do u think will happen when he lands will they let him in or nah

13. Comedy gold

14. I’d like to add that flight prices and times from Europe are insane right now because you can’t fly over Russia and due to the earlier limits the airlines have started moving cargo instead of passengers. A Japanese flight attendant told me that she hasn’t been home during the whole pandemic because the flights are so expensive that their free tickets don’t cover it. And not like Japan was a cheap country to visit even before the pandemic.