Has Japan recently reopened to visitors and tourists or is it still closed totally and likely for a decade or so if not forever?

Asked by raiden88 (106

) September 11th, 2022

I heard that after two years of complete isolation because of COVID, Japan had recently opened its doors to visitors and tourists alike if only partially. However, I came upon this video on Youtube that said the country is still totally closed to people of all foreign countries. If that’s so, I feel the Japanese government is using the COVID as an excuse to begin a modern day Tokugawa period where no foreigners were allowed for over 200 years. If it remains closed on that being the case, several parts of Tokyo, Osaka, and all over Japan will become nothing but abandoned ghost towns and in a way wastelands of near extinction due to lack of tourists, only some of the still remaining buildings and shops and other places like that which haven’t been destroyed already will undoubtedly be completely abandoned. If Japan is still not accessible to visitors and tourists, I can only image the Japanese government will use their air defense network consisting of fighter jets, anti aircraft guns, and SAMs to shoot down or drive off any foreign airliner, or any outside plane for that matter from its airspace as Japanese airspace and waters would be totally off limits ot anybody but themselves. I’m thinking about visiting Japan and hopefully for my birthday which is on April, but if that’s the case, this is very highly unlikely to happen.

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7 Answers

Japan’s economy is tanking because of this; I doubt this is some grand conspiracy to go back to the 17th century. I think they are just overreacting to COVID, more so than the rest of the world. Last I heard they are planning on ending their daily arrival cap and open up more to tourists this fall, but it won’t be done all at once. They are going to move as slowly as possible.

Demosthenes (14927

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They have reopened to tourists booking through travel agencies.

Hawaii_Jake (37345

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Response moderated (Unhelpful)

Apparently, if the country you are from is on the Blue list and you were there for 14 days prior to going to Japan then you don’t have to do the 14-day quarantine. The US is on the blue list. However, you have to book a package tour through a Japanese travel agency. It’s still not open to individual travelers. https://www.japan-guide.com/news/alerts.html

Pandora (32205

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Their country, they can make all the mistakes they want.

As I see it, Japanese society (and governance) historically has been reactive – late to the party – as opposed to being creative and aggressive. It’s the way their culture has reacted for decades, if not centuries.

So their health people are fighting the COVID war in 2022 that largely ended for the rest of the world late in 2021.

elbanditoroso (33157

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