Resumption of tourism - Latest info?

Pretty uneducated speculation.

The countries that have reopened in the past few months with high vax rates have not seen any major increase in cases or any so called new wave/s.

You cannot compare reopenning in today 's environment to a reopenning from six to 12 months ago. When vax rates were low and hospitals were still somewhat near capacity.

Why would allowing small numbers of tourists into Japan before July result in a new wave of infection in August?

It won't. I find it a little amusing that you read my post in that way. I must admit that I may not have provided enough details about my thinking.

The wave in August will not be caused by foreign tourists or foreigners! It will be caused by people spending more time indoors because of the heat. Every summer has seen a new wave in Japan so far, and it is reasonable to expect the same to happen this summer again. It could also happen earlier than August.

If the wave is bad again (possibly with a new variant), a reversal in the opening of the borders may happen again. At the same time, I find it hard to imagine that the Japanese government will open the border to considerable numbers of tourists within just the next four months. The Japanese government is rather cautious compared to other governments in the world.

My previous speculation is based on the above thoughts.

Again. You cannot compare this summer to last 2021s or 2020s summers.

Vax rates and varients did not look good compared to 2022 scenerio/s.

Stop using outdated data when forming an opinion or theory.

The southern hemisphere countries that opened in the past 3 months. So height of summer and and getting out and about. Haven't seen a major uptick.

The only southern hemisphere nations this summer that saw a major uptick was Australia and New Zealand. But these two nations had almost zero cases compared to the rest of the world due to their hard border stance. Similar to Japan.

Japan has an extra six month extra to clear hospital beds and get vaxxes in arms.

Japan has cleared all of those hurdles they need to open up. I dunno why they are slow to open up their borders. I am an outsider, so I am not privy to their political ways. But their political leaders have access to the same data I can research online, and probably much more.

Maybe the uneducated public is being scared into incorrect opinions and theories due to a lot of misinformation being spread around.

Japan also tests way less during its waves than other high GDP countries. Population immunity through infection will be a lot higher than it appears just looking at case numbers. Hopefully this means any potential future waves aren't as big.

I think the elections in July might keep tourists out until after they are over. That said, I think the latest polls show just over 50% of the public want to keep borders closed, I believe this was around 80% a few months prior, so opinion seems to be changing quickly and may not be a factor in a couple of months.

I don't understand the heated response. I am not writing about what I think should happen but about what I expect to happen based on my - not uneducated - knowledge about Japanese government and tourism industry. I would be the happiest person in the world if my (pessimist?) speculations proved to be wrong and Japan opened the door to tourists much earlier.

There has been quite positive news in the past weeks, but it's clear we aren't there yet. My plan is to travel in May, but as I posted some weeks ago, it will most likely be towards the US as I expect it to be extremely unlikely Japan opens in the next 3 months.

However! Seeing the speed at which Europe is opening up and is considering the pandemic as "over" (basically anyway) I will most likely wait untill the very last minute to make a decision and booking in the hope the plans can/will accelerate in Japan, although I know it's quite unlikely...

And as the person who brought up this Summer or December...

For me, if Japan doesn't open in the Summer or doesn't open until after I've already made other plans, (because I can't wait until June to book, I need to look at camps and travel elsewhere as options.) the next time I can possibly go to Japan is December. I expect unless there is a new more deadly variant, World War III, some other catastrophe I can't predict, Japan will be open in the Fall, but I, personally, have to wait until December because I have a kid in middle school and I can't pull her out to go in Fall. I'm also not going to go to Japan without her. I really enjoy travel with my child. It involves compromises but I find it overall rewarding.

I won't be travelling to Japan at all this calender year. Even if/when it does open up. Too much uncertainty. And too late to to organise workplace leave that align with school holidays.

Just easier to dump 2022 in the too-hard basket. And aim for next year instead. Al those factors will not be present.

Japan has an extra six month extra to clear hospital beds and get vaxxes in arms.
Japan has cleared all of those hurdles they need to open up.
That is a very uninformed comment - I check the daily data for hospitalizations and current daily deaths and both remain high. I do not think the 642,761 people (as of yesterday) receiving hospital treatment would think that their hospital beds have been "cleared", but this is a lot lower than it was back in February. And 6,000 deaths in the last five weeks - it took over a year to get to that total at the beginning of the pandemic.

To put the Japanese immigration decisions into perspective compared to our Western Nations - it might be good to look at what their neighbors are doing:

China - borders closed to tourists
South Korea - can apply through embassy but it's complicated (apart for Singapore residents for VTL)
Taiwan - not open to tourists

Vietnam - about to open to tourists on April 1st with lots of hoops to jump through
Thailand - open but requires lots of paperwork and PCR test staying in a hotel for a night
Indonesia - currently 3-5 nights quarantine but this may change on April 1st and country dependent
Singapore - has VTL's with many countries but lots of paperwork
Malaysia - might open up April 1st but will find out later this week

So will Japan open borders to tourists? Yes - but I have no idea when. I will say that opening the borders to business, students and family members was a HUGE change and one that I'm sure has alleviated a large amount of human suffering which was affecting Japan's reputation overseas.

If the Omicron wave did not occur - this whole conversation would probably be different and may have changed Japan's and North Asia's opening up (apart from China) by as much as 6 months.

y do people group Asians together, like they're all the same? European countries, US states, North American countries, have all had pretty different covid responses and restrictions from each other, why would Asians be any different?

Asia is a continent of individual countries. Like you mentioned - they have had very different responses and I see 8 countries mentioned with different reactions/responses.

A few posts before mentioned that Europe, Australia, the US and such were opening so why not Japan? My main aim was to show that different locations may have different trends or patterns - thus meaning that Japan won't just follow what happens in Western Countries.

My aim was not to say that asia is the same - I've lived in 5 asian countries and I can tell you that there are many differences than just language and different weather. And like a footballer who has played 1 season too many - I'll retire from this thread even though I now realise my last few posts may not be my most productive.

Even if I am the first one who would like to be again in Japan, I don't understand why some people wants to put pressure over Japan to open the borders. This happened in the past, if we look at history, but I hope won't happen today.

Japan is a country with an aged population and wants to take as less risks as possible before re-opening. I look daily the news and this forum (especially this post who is now 10 pages long!), but I planned to do my last and next holidays somewhere else. I won't waste my money or time to book holidays in Japan that might not happen. I just wait for reopening news.

Aside from that, I think it's political responsibility to convince people, in this case Japanese people, that Covid19 will never be 100% removed, it has to become part of our lives like 9/11 restrictions for a flight.

I don't understand why some people wants to put pressure over Japan to open the borders.

Really? The biggest among several reasons: closing the borders without scientific reasoning hurts the already-weak economy tremendously. And it is not just some people in this forum, but also many Japanese people, companies and business associations who are calling for a further loosening of the travel restrictions.

As a non-Japanese citizen, I know I have no say on when Japan opens. I am perfectly happy though making guesses. Japan doesn't have to follow what other countries in Asia are doing any more than the US, Canada and Mexico need to agree on all procedures however....

South Korea is letting in tourists. I've seen a mix on quarantine requirements, but going by the South Korean embassy in the US, it is currently 7 days. https://overseas.mofa.go.kr/us-en/brd/m_4500/view.do?seq=761027&page=1 It looks like you mostly need to test before you go and test and quarantine on arrival.

Vietnam is letting in tourists on March 15. For US travelers, we will need to get a visa like pre-pandemic. For vaccinated travelers, they will need to test before entry, test on arrival and quarantine until the test results are received, ~ 1 day.


Starting today (March 7) Taiwan is going to allow business travel again. There are currently no visa exemptions.


Thailand has a Test and Go Program for Fully vaccinated travelers: https://www.thaiembassy.com/travel-to-thailand/test-and-go-thailand-qu... It really doesn't seem like it's that hard and the website is set up to try to make it as easy as possible. They want tourists back.

The rest of Indonesia is closed to US tourists, but Bali just reopened along with its visa on arrival program. Bali seems to require proof of vaccination and a negative test upon arrival.

Singapore seems to be pretty similar to a lot of places for fully vaccinated travelers and requires some testing, registering your vaccination with a specific program, and having enough insurance.

I have not seen anything on Malaysia yet.

As of 2/10, the Philippines are open to fully vaccinated tourists from visa-free countries including the US. Visitors must submit proof of vaccination and get tested 48 hours before their flight, as well as self monitor while in the Philippines.


I don't know if I have a high bar for paperwork, but none of the requirements for any of the Asian countries listed above except South Korea with its 7 day quarantine, seem particularly onerous or all that much more than I had to do when traveling from the US Mainland to Hawaii. The Safe Travels Hawaii program is set to end March 25th, but I went to Hawaii in April 2021 and just got back from a second trip in February 2022. I needed to create and fill out a Safe Travel itinerary for my trips to Hawaii. For my April trip, all 3 of us needed to be Covid tested 48 hours before our flight. We also needed to fill out an affirmation every day that we had no Covid symptoms. For our February trip, we just had to upload our vaccination cards since all 3 of us are vaccinated and my husband and I are boostered. We didn't get our QR codes in time, so we had to wait in line at the airport to have inspectors check our vaccination cards. It really wasn't a big deal.

mfedley "And like a footballer who has played 1 season too many - I'll retire from this thread even though I now realise my last few posts may not be my most productive."...a fantastic and dignified bowing out. I hope that there is no copyright on your comment as I fully intend to use it next time I get bogged down in an unproductive discussion.

I suppose that we must also remember Cunningham's Law for forums.

Having read everyone's comments, I'm getting used to the fact that our family trip of a lifetime, booked since last October, won't happen now. I had planned our trip for July (no choice of dates as we have to work around school holidays and exams).We are approaching the date when we either have to pay up and hope for the best (hoping insurance pays out if we can't go) or just cancel and try again next year. It's a whopping amount of money for the tickets and I don't want it sitting in an airline's bank account for a year. I get the impression that July is not going to see Japan open it's borders to the likes of us.

I get the impression that July is not going to see Japan open it's borders to the likes of us.
It would be a real gamble. In this morning's news was the comment that the Government is considering a plan to lift the cap (remove the restriction) on student visa entry in May. That is still two months away. While the moves for tourism might follow quickly after that, a further two months only gets to July.

There was a story mid week on Kyodo news stating that the majority of students will have entered Japan by the end of May;

"We expect the entry of those students (wishing to study in Japan) to be realized to a great extent by the end of May," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a press briefing."

So July isn't completely off the table, but may not be worth the risk, depending on your circumstances.