Resumption of tourism - Latest info?

Hello everyone,

The only info I can find about this topic is on the sites page "Travel Alerts and Disaster Updates".
I was just wondering if there is any view on if/when the government might communicate a plan (if there is any at this time) on the resumption of international tourism?

I'm guessing the answer is no (else I guess the info would be on this page). But just trying to see if there might be any info I am missing.

For us personally, we are looking to plan holidays for May 2022 and we are listing the options for travelling outside of Europe for this period. We are naturally aware nobody can give an exact answer but are just trying to gather all existing information to make an informed decision on where we want to book.

Most likely booking a trip to the USA/Canada (which have/will open to Europeans) or South America (where some countries have re-opened) is the most logical decision, but as our 2020 trip to Japan was unable to go through, we still hope a 2022 trip would be possible.

Thanks for any input.

There is practically no public discussion going on in the government about reopening the borders to tourists. It is a measure that is unpopular and considered premature among a large percentage of the population and the mass media who blamed loose border control as one of the mistakes in the government's handling of the crisis in the past.

Because it is a rather unpopular topic, I suspect that we won't hear much about it until the national elections will be over on October 31, but I expect that the public discussion will start afterwards. Large parts of the business world is highly interested in the reopening of the borders.

I agree with most of the comments/sentiment posted by Uji above.
The milestone to look for is when the domestic vaccination programme is basically complete (should be some time in November) and for some announcements in December (and yes, that is an estimate/educated guess/opinion).
There are some indications that I have seen that there is a plan/work going on behind the scenes, but the public facing version is mostly contained in the official MoFA website detailing current (not future) restrictions. There have been some quite big changes to restrictions over the past month, but for tourist travel, not the change in measures that would allow travel.

The opening of borders is a complex topic in North Asia. For Japan - the first movement towards easing borders for tourists will be seen through two different things

(1) Encouragement of tourism by locals.
(2) Starting to re-introduce business travel corridors such as what they used to have with Vietnam.

Even though Japan started out slowly with vaccinations compared to NA & Europe - they have caught up. The general age of Japanese people (being much older) along with Japan having pronounced seasons (along with an election in 2 weeks) will slow down any decision at the moment.

Everything that was mentioned in the past 2 posts I see as correct. Both posters also probably have more knowledge on what's happening on the ground than myself as well.

I will make a comment that China, Japan, Taiwan & Korea at present are much more conservative about opening borders than in Europe or North America. For China - there is even talk that borders may not start to fully open until after the November 2022 CCP Party conference.

As such - all we can do is watch this space

As far as I understand the current situation the boarders are even closed for foreigners wanting to live in Japan. I think more only Japanese and CURRENT residents can enter, but not future residents. One can apply for a work/student visa, it will be processed but then actually put on hold.
I do hope that by the end of the year there will be some kind of plan to at least let future residents in, but probably it is going to be in some phased approach. After these residents are in the next logical trip to let back in will likely be business travelers once there is no requirement for quarantine. So while at the beginning of the pandemic I found people saying “Jalan will be closed for years “ as crazy alarmist, it seems more and more that they are right.

But yes, ultimately we will see what happens after the elections, but what I am quite sure about is that the opening will be very gradual.

Hello,

Thanks you for the feedback.
The posts were very insightful. Especially regarding the upcoming elections (of which I wasn't aware) and the wrapping up of the vaccination campaign in the coming month(s).

Regards
Martin

Let me add my thanks, everyone is saying what I had suspected. I have been working under the assumption that late spring 2022 might be possible but I see that might be too optimistic. Especially given the infection rates where I am. I would imagine my country would be low on the list of those who might be allowed to travel.

To answer your question briefly: No, you haven't missed it. There's no info, not even much in the way of informed speculation or even rumors. So it's anybody's guess. My guess is: tourism won't really crack open until LATE 2022 or possibly beginning of 2023 -- and that's if all goes well. If we all get whacked with some new variant that's good a dodging the vaccines, we could be back to Square One.

Bottom line: It (Japan opening up to foreign tourists without quarantines and other significant restrictions) is not going to happen soon. You want to go in May 2022? Don't book anything that's not fully refundable, and be fully prepared to change your plans significantly.

On Facebook, the JNTO told that they strongly believe that tourism will be possible again in 2022.

Just to inform you.

Correction: They told ME in a private message.

(I forgot the word me. So you won‘t find a public post.)

Martin, also consider South Korea.

It has been several years since we were there but there are it is a lot different to Japan, but there are some beautiful spots (we really enjoyed Nami Island in particular), the food is cheap and fantastic, the accommodation is good and reasonably priced, and a lot of the locals are very nice as well (though maybe not quite as welcoming as the locals in Japan were). I'd be keen to go back, and see more country areas in particular.

"On Facebook, the JNTO told that they strongly believe that tourism will be possible again in 2022."

So what? They can say they believe in the Tooth Fairy, perhaps they are wrong or just telling you what they think you want to hear? And of course "tourism will be possible" could mean: tourism for SOME (not necessarily you), and/or tourism with a mandatory quarantine upon arrival, and/or limited tourism starting in December 2022, or other magical/wishful thinking. Over here in the real world, that's not the "tourism" most are looking for.

Go ahead and believe what you want. But don't book anything that's not 100% refundable or you take a great risk of losing it. Most of the world is still gripped by a deadly pandemic. Yes, it's inconvenient. Be patient.

@Jo Mama

Why do you think late 2022 or 2023 while even zero-covid countries like Australia and New Zealand have announced plans to reopen?

What can we predict instead? New sakoku?

Before you use Australia for a reference point. Make sure you know whom and how they are openning up for first. Tourism is not yet a reason.

2019年の日本人の国内旅行消費額は、２１兆９千億円（旅行・観光消費動向調査：観光庁）となっており、外国人旅行消費額の４.６倍となっています。, cited by the governmental source.
tourism by foreign people is less than 20% of the total tourism in Japan.
that is, when domestic tourism is fully open , the bad influence will be mostly recovered.

even zero-covid countries like Australia
Just to clarify that Australia is not  "zero-covid". We have had more than 2000 new cases each day in the past weeks. But, yes the Government is opening the border, limited flights from selected countries would be flying in soon: https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/qantas-brings-forward-intern...

I've been following this thread for a few days since I was planning for May 2022 too (originally was 2021).
Just wanted to share this article by Reuters:
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-gauge-timing-restarti...

I don't think border will be opened by next year, but they could at least let people from vaccinated countries in. Where I'm from vaccinations are over 70% with Pfizer and Japanaese approved vaccines, I don't understand why I can't travel to JP.

@Margu

So your prediction is that borders will be closed for many more years?

Before Olympic games, my guess was around Luna New Year for some countries, but I really don't know now and I don't think that Japan selects countries by vaccinated rate. Let's enjoy planning anyway.

@/

I hope not, but I think at least for half of the 2022.
I recently spoke with a man living in Japan who said he heard they're going to start reopening on November 2021, but i don't know where he got the infos