As COVID fears ebb, Japan readies for more tourists from abroad

18 comments

1. I don’t understand this article. It’s written almost as if we are in an alternate reality where Japan has already reopened. Another article posted said there has only been approx. 1300 applications for the guided tours. We are literally talking about 20 or 30 entries per day, compared to 88,000 per day in 2019. Plus, these closely guarded “tourists” can’t visit most of these tourist-hungry shops anyway as they won’t be on the itinerary. I believe Tokyo hasn’t even signed up for the guided tourism scheme.

   > “In a way, we didn’t have much to do and we just had to wait. The gates have now reopened,” he said.

   Does he read the news??

   Japan has given no indication of when or even if they will reopen to individual tourism and start respecting their visa-waiver agreements again. It’s currently one of the most closed countries in the world.

2. Interesting that despite the central government staying masks could be removed outside, the vast majority of people I see continue to wear their masks outdoors. Social pressure is an interesting phenomenon.

3. It must be fears about the deadly pandemic.

4. lol

5. Eh, still waiting for fall. Who the hell would want to go to Japan during this heatwave?

6. as someone who was in process of opening a business in japan pre-pandemic and even heavily trying to sort everything about with japanese lawyers and government throughout 2020 and 2021 all those news from late 2021 until today made me change my mind. I know of a few other people who made the same decision. I love japan and their people, but this mindset and government can go back to do Edo period. What a shitshow

7. “Stop having it be closed.”

8. When are we thinking Japan will eventually let tourists back in fully (no guided tours)?

9. [deleted]

10. Maybe I’ll wait till inflation calms down a bit.

11. Gonna give it a year or so before I visit my relatives in Osaka again. Best to just wait out the massive surge and then the ebb once the floodgates open for real.

12. It’s past time for the other G7 countries to reciprocate. Apply the same rules to Japanese tourists.

13. Unless Kishida gets checked by G7 (or similar party), this heavily scrutinized North Korean-esque social theater of ‘open for tourism, but not really’ will continue forever. Meanwhile Japanese citizens can just “Let’s go Hawaii” visa-free.

14. honestly, i am starting to give up i’ll ever go to japan. i planed on going first time in June 2020 right when covid started, since that was first time i was able to afford such trip. and now more than two years later, i am in position where money isnt an issue, but i simply cant enter due to not beeing japanese. i am not getting any younger here, and if they dont open untill end of this year i’m giving up on japan (maybe forever) and choosing somewhere else to spend my money

15. They’ve already started, at least. I saw a bunch of those huge tour buses at Osaka Castle Park yesterday for the first time in ages. Easy to notice them when you’re used to walking past vast empty parking lots every day. It was nice to see!

16. These articles are pure trash and lazy

17. So sick of these posts. It’s exhausting seeing them until they actually just open the boarders.

18. 1 Euro is 144 Yen at the moment. Tourism made at least 10% of Japan’s GDP 3 years ago. Do they want to starve their population I wonder, put them into more stagflation?

    Sorry, but Asians are absolute lunatics when it comes to COVID. They have no idea how to handle this situation with respect to people’s lives.