““It is especially difficult to decide because the country is in an election campaign period,” a senior official at the Prime Minister’s Office said”
Sigh. It’s not as if there’s any real doubt of the outcome. I guess it’ll come down to whatever mandate they presume from pre-election polls. I’m not optimistic. Sigh again.
Boats. With guns. Gunboats.
Until the public internalizes that this might go on literally forever if no one intervenes and asks why they are still doing what they’re doing, the government will have free reign on these policies.
Japanese people are traveling across, in, and out of Japan again, whether a handful of government officials continue to “urge caution” 2.5 years into the pandemic. People are shedding masks outside and are already not wearing masks in crowded restaurants, workplaces, and bars.
It’s time for a consistent realignment of priorities along with some anti-COVID measures for a balanced approach. This on and off mentality is excruciatingly painful, given we’ve seen it in action for so long.
Covid is just going to be a thing that happens. If you’re vaccinated you’re fine. I understand the fears of it evolving, but you can’t stay locked up forever.
I can imagine a news headline some time in the future: “Five years after everyone else, Japan finally dispenses with masks and opens up for non-hand-holding tourism…just as a completely new virus turns up and resets everything back to 鎖国 mode!”
Japan shitting their pants for 1200 tourist for whole june and july ?
It’s the BA4 / BA5 wave which is currently spreading through almost every other country too (incidentally, Japan’s continued ban on incoming tourism and visa waivers did exactly nothing to prevent these variants from entering and spreading). South Africa and Portugal are slightly ahead in this wave. It was a small wave for them both and cases are declining again with no major problems experienced.
Europe is facing this wave with fully open borders and close to 2019 levels of leisure travel in many cases as we come into the summer, with no restrictions, no masking, and again no serious problems are being experienced, at least from a heath perspective – however certain airports and airlines are certainly struggling with the increase in passenger loads this summer!
As an outsider who’s waiting to get back to Japan since 2019, it’s becoming rather infuriating seeing Japan stay silent on international tourism, whilst their citizens are free to visit mine and other countries at will.
I welcome Japanese coming to Australia, but far out, the country needs to start reciprocating.
Japan, the laughingstock of the world. The level of neurotic behavior is at a whole new level.
Out of curiosity, does Japan actually require tourism to survive?
It does seem like the country is pretty self sustaining
Japan should just proclaim that they don’t want any foreigners in their country and be based.
“Virus wave” give me a f-ing break. Death rate at.04%, the population is vaccinated, most people 3 times.
Tokugawa 2.0, the sequel no one asked for
I was going to Japan every year since 2015, and twice in 2019 (my last trip I left the month covid broke out in China). I had never really been abroad before, besides a trip to England when I was little.
I went to Japan over and over again because it was my dream growing up, but also because every trip just got better and better. The people are lovely. There’s always new things to discover. The world’s best food and incredible nightlife and sightseeing.
I understand the reasoning behind lockdowns, despite it being evident very early on in covid that they had *little to no effect* on the spread. I don’t want to get into the politics either, but the fact that Japan is still responding this way 30 MONTHS later is absurd and pathetic. The current strains are less severe than cold symptoms, and their population is like 90% double vaxxed (not that vaccines do anything anyway). Basically everyone else is FULLY open to vaxxed and nonvaxxed people. Some countries aren’t even requiring tests beforehand. I personally never got any vaccine, and I’m visiting France this December.
I know my opinion doesn’t matter and won’t change anything, but I don’t think I’m visiting Japan again over this. There’s other places I want to see in Asia anyway, particularly in the southeast.
Why is Japans omicron wave so different from other countries? They are still coming down from the wave from January. Most other countries wave lasted about 2 months.
Wish people would just get over this. Everyone vaccinated. Live!! For f sakes!
oh no it’s Covid 19 so scary
Soon 1$ usd = 1000 yen
sigh i was hopeful for japan trip in 2022 now most likely will be 2023
If this continues into 2023 then it might be time for other countries to withdraw Japan’s visa waiver.
“Oh no numbers are going up, close everything”
“Oh numbers are going up, open everything!”
This cycle will literally continue forever. Covid is as likely to be eradicated as the common cold or the flu.
Can we please just stop the covid countermeasures? 81% of Japan’s population is fully vaccinated. I don’t really care about tourist visas, but wearing masks in the summer really sucks.
Sakoku part 2 really blows, and will hurt Japan as much as the first one did in the long run.
28 comments
““It is especially difficult to decide because the country is in an election campaign period,” a senior official at the Prime Minister’s Office said”
Sigh. It’s not as if there’s any real doubt of the outcome. I guess it’ll come down to whatever mandate they presume from pre-election polls. I’m not optimistic. Sigh again.
Boats. With guns. Gunboats.
Until the public internalizes that this might go on literally forever if no one intervenes and asks why they are still doing what they’re doing, the government will have free reign on these policies.
Japanese people are traveling across, in, and out of Japan again, whether a handful of government officials continue to “urge caution” 2.5 years into the pandemic. People are shedding masks outside and are already not wearing masks in crowded restaurants, workplaces, and bars.
It’s time for a consistent realignment of priorities along with some anti-COVID measures for a balanced approach. This on and off mentality is excruciatingly painful, given we’ve seen it in action for so long.
Covid is just going to be a thing that happens. If you’re vaccinated you’re fine. I understand the fears of it evolving, but you can’t stay locked up forever.
I can imagine a news headline some time in the future: “Five years after everyone else, Japan finally dispenses with masks and opens up for non-hand-holding tourism…just as a completely new virus turns up and resets everything back to 鎖国 mode!”
Japan shitting their pants for 1200 tourist for whole june and july ?
It’s the BA4 / BA5 wave which is currently spreading through almost every other country too (incidentally, Japan’s continued ban on incoming tourism and visa waivers did exactly nothing to prevent these variants from entering and spreading). South Africa and Portugal are slightly ahead in this wave. It was a small wave for them both and cases are declining again with no major problems experienced.
Europe is facing this wave with fully open borders and close to 2019 levels of leisure travel in many cases as we come into the summer, with no restrictions, no masking, and again no serious problems are being experienced, at least from a heath perspective – however certain airports and airlines are certainly struggling with the increase in passenger loads this summer!
As an outsider who’s waiting to get back to Japan since 2019, it’s becoming rather infuriating seeing Japan stay silent on international tourism, whilst their citizens are free to visit mine and other countries at will.
I welcome Japanese coming to Australia, but far out, the country needs to start reciprocating.
Japan, the laughingstock of the world. The level of neurotic behavior is at a whole new level.
Out of curiosity, does Japan actually require tourism to survive?
It does seem like the country is pretty self sustaining
[deleted]
Cannabis can help with that. https://today.uic.edu/can-cbd-fight-covid-19
Fear and worry are not the same.
Already starting to get worse in EU
Japan should just proclaim that they don’t want any foreigners in their country and be based.
“Virus wave” give me a f-ing break. Death rate at.04%, the population is vaccinated, most people 3 times.
Tokugawa 2.0, the sequel no one asked for
I was going to Japan every year since 2015, and twice in 2019 (my last trip I left the month covid broke out in China). I had never really been abroad before, besides a trip to England when I was little.
I went to Japan over and over again because it was my dream growing up, but also because every trip just got better and better. The people are lovely. There’s always new things to discover. The world’s best food and incredible nightlife and sightseeing.
I understand the reasoning behind lockdowns, despite it being evident very early on in covid that they had *little to no effect* on the spread. I don’t want to get into the politics either, but the fact that Japan is still responding this way 30 MONTHS later is absurd and pathetic. The current strains are less severe than cold symptoms, and their population is like 90% double vaxxed (not that vaccines do anything anyway). Basically everyone else is FULLY open to vaxxed and nonvaxxed people. Some countries aren’t even requiring tests beforehand. I personally never got any vaccine, and I’m visiting France this December.
I know my opinion doesn’t matter and won’t change anything, but I don’t think I’m visiting Japan again over this. There’s other places I want to see in Asia anyway, particularly in the southeast.
Why is Japans omicron wave so different from other countries? They are still coming down from the wave from January. Most other countries wave lasted about 2 months.
Wish people would just get over this. Everyone vaccinated. Live!! For f sakes!
oh no it’s Covid 19 so scary
Soon 1$ usd = 1000 yen
sigh i was hopeful for japan trip in 2022 now most likely will be 2023
If this continues into 2023 then it might be time for other countries to withdraw Japan’s visa waiver.
“Oh no numbers are going up, close everything”
“Oh numbers are going up, open everything!”
This cycle will literally continue forever. Covid is as likely to be eradicated as the common cold or the flu.
Can we please just stop the covid countermeasures? 81% of Japan’s population is fully vaccinated. I don’t really care about tourist visas, but wearing masks in the summer really sucks.
Sakoku part 2 really blows, and will hurt Japan as much as the first one did in the long run.
The wait continues i guess