Fellow residents, brace yourselves....

[Sudsy]

The onslaught shall commence shortly.

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/...p-in-not-so-distant-future-official-says.html

Japan is reviewing its border control policy of keeping daily entries below 50,000 and will remove it in the "not so distant future," a government spokesman said Sunday.

The government will simultaneously relax other restrictions including a visa requirement and the requirement to travel on a package tour when it completely lifts the daily cap on overseas arrivals, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara said in a Fuji Television program.

 

[TAG Manager]

Yeah, that's what I heard earlier... I'm kind of surprised.

"Japan has seasonal attractions in fall and winter. We know there are a lot of people overseas who want to come to Japan"

Some sort of action will be fairly soon if they plan to take advantage of the seasonal attractions.

 

[Goshogawara]

Japanese embassies and consulates in G7 countries do not have the manpower to process the current and upcoming tourist visas. The easing of restrictions may happen in October or not at all, but public servants in foreign countries burdened with additional work they don't want to do may be a good reason to at least scrap the visa requirement. Kihara hasn't said anything about ERFS.

 

[MikeH]

Japanese embassies and consulates in G7 countries do not have the manpower to process the current and upcoming tourist visas. The easing of restrictions may happen in October or not at all, but public servants in foreign countries burdened with additional work they don't want to do may be a good reason to at least scrap the visa requirement. Kihara hasn't said anything about ERFS.

If and when the government in its wisdom decides to let the unwashed in will most certainly go back to the visa waiver programs. Just as you said. they have no way to survive the onslaught of all the tourist visa applications.

 

[Striker1983]

Also there were tons of people that already purchased their ticket to Japan from November onwards earlier this year due to the specials from budget airlines from overseas (I am one of them). But due to the proximity of the travel time and visa requirement/ticket booked by tour companies, a lot of people already changed or cancelled their ticket and planned to go somewhere else. One of my friend worked for Jetstar international flights, and he told me that so many flights cancel due to staff shortage and lack of people is making everybody's life difficult.

I respect how Japan Government want to slow the spread etc, but nowdays it's more like a political move instead of health advice since they allow their own citizen travelling overseas. That's kinda leaves a sour taste and made some people not happy as well.

I just hope full release of border is incoming, I got like 1 month to decide if I want to keep or cancel the trip as well lol. If I cancel, it will be the second time due to COVID.

 

[MelissaAnne]

I respect how Japan Government want to slow the spread etc, but nowdays it's more like a political move instead of health advice since they allow their own citizen travelling overseas. That's kinda leaves a sour taste and made some people not happy as well.

Not to mention, for about the last 6 weeks, Japan has been the highest out of the G7 for cases/capita (although, at least here in Canada, testing is so restricted, the official numbers are pretty much meaningless), and hasn't been the lowest since late January (as per Our World in Data). So, are the border restrictions really helping control the spread that much...

 

[Babaram]

So, are the border restrictions really helping control the spread that much...

Absolutely. They prevent gaijin from catching COVID in Japan.

 

[Sudsy]

So, are the border restrictions really helping control the spread that much...

To be fair, the issue (from the government side) is that if tourists test positive here, they are required to be hospitalised/quarantined. Hopefully the pending announcement also includes a downgrade of Corona to class 4 or 5.

 

[hrbb]

Not too bothered about the hordes since it looks like the Chinese contingent won't be resuming normal operations any time soon. If we can get the masks out of schools then that will be a bonus. Ridiculous what the kids have had to put up with.

 

[Ken1988]

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/fd3db9625bae3c1e5093307c02729da70216b384

OMG. It's coming! (if Kishida decides this week...).

 

[TAG Manager]

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/fd3db9625bae3c1e5093307c02729da70216b384

OMG. It's coming! (if Kishida decides this week...).

And I thought I had more time to finish more TAG stuff before the onslaught.

 

[Sudsy]

it looks like the Chinese contingent won't be resuming normal operations any time soon.

Don't be so sure about that. Predictions are that they'll start allowing outbound tourism by the end of the year.

 

[Fifty Fifty]

Don't be so sure about that. Predictions are that they'll start allowing outbound tourism by the end of the year.

Congratulations on 10k messages @Sudsy ! that’s one hell of a feat.

 

[Sudsy]

Congratulations on 10k messages @Sudsy ! that’s one hell of a feat.

And dammit, 10K was about Chinese tourists. If I'd been paying attention I would have posted something at least a little sukebe.

 

[Keihan]

I knew it. I knew it was too good to be true, and I would never relive my blissful Chinese/Hippy/Moron-free dream vacation of March 2020. I saw Kihara's remarks yesterday and willed myself to believe that "not-so-distant-future" meant early 2023. But when I read the Japan Times article earlier today, the wording was far too ominous and a familiar feeling kicked in. It's the same feeling I get on election night, when I'm standing in campaign HQ, eyes glued to three different screens and the first print-out shows my horse losing by six points. A sinking feeling, a sickly churn in the gut. It still ain't over, but you know it's over. I was discussing today's news with my other half and she assured me that the Japanese government doesn't make announcements like this three or four months ahead of schedule; if they're talking about removing restrictions now that means it's happening soon, and her guess is October.

There was a dream. A dream of an immigration line at HND without five hundred screaming, shoving Chinese trying to cut in line and get ahead of each other and causing a three hour delay. A dream of a Nakano Broadway with fully-stocked watch cases and no disgusting Chinese men screaming and spitting and arguing with the sales staff to try to get an extra discount. A dream of a Shinkansen car not packed full of idiot fucking Asian and European tourists loading all their fucking suitcases and dirty backpacker rigs in the middle of the fucking aisle and thinking that's a good idea, and of course they're not sitting in the correct seats. A dream of the Japan I remember in the early 2000s.

In another life I could've been an Uyoku spokesman.

 

[MikeH]

There was a dream. A dream of an immigration line at HND without five hundred screaming, shoving Chinese trying to cut in line and get ahead of each other and causing a three hour delay.

Not wanting to twist the knife in the wound but from the door opening in the air-plane to outside waiting for my luggage took ten minutes in Haneda last week.

Ha, who am I kidding. Definitely wanted to twist that knife.

 

[ah toh]

i read somewhere estimating china make up 30%, taiwan and hongkong combine about 15% of japan tourism.
so i search https://www.tourism.jp/en/tourism-database/stats/inbound/ (my bad, inbound oversea resident, maybe this one https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-china-health-tourism-japan-idUKKBN1ZX0WZ), if you take a look at 2019, it is about there or higher.
so even if it open up soon, it will most get back 60+%, in fact most SEA countries after open up 2-3months is only reaching 60+%, without chinese market.

it is good now to open fast before china finally open up, so the most it will get back 2/3 of tourism in short term , so they can tell themselves they can monitor, control..
to be fully recover tourism will be next year.
so long they don't again brake or back track if any surge of covids after opening up and after one has book ticket and hotel.
once open, no turning back, please.

 

[Striker1983]

All we can do now is hope for the best, but to be honest I am surprised that the Japanese Government is so quick about this decision changing/making since they only just announce the single traveller fiasco like 2 weeks ago.
I guess the Japanese government really need tourism before Kyoto went full bankrupt huh? Or not enough young Japanese drinking to help boost the economy?

Just hope we get an update real soon, so I can at least plan where I want to go for a 3 weeks trip. I booked the ticket at May and still got nothing plan yet due to this lol (I am so screwed). Currently from my understanding, even with all those requirement waived, travel insurance is a must since you will need to pay for the medical expenses should you got sick from COVID?

 

[MrDuBois]

Shit, I need to go to Kyoto ASAP then. But I suspect if they open soon (October?), there won't be that much of an influx anyway because most people won't be able to afford the ticket prices for flights on this short of a notice.

Other than that, goodbye cheap airbnbs and hotels.

 

[ah toh]

Shit, I need to go to Kyoto ASAP then. But I suspect if they open soon (October?), there won't be that much of an influx anyway because most people won't be able to afford the ticket prices for flights on this short of a notice.

Other than that, goodbye cheap airbnbs and hotels.

Depend on how much ur tickets and hotels, cheap yen can offset it. My single trip usually spend 1.2m yen, it save me 300k yen, tobita buy 4 get 1 free

 

[Keihan]

The news is spreading like wildfire around here. Just about every single employee in my office approached me today, now planning a trip to Japan and wondering what I think about the news. And I swear, every single conversation is basically identical and verbatim:

STAFF: "Is Japan really opening up again???"

ME: "Yes, looks like it will reopen in October."

STAFF: "Are they going to let the CHINESE back in???"

ME: "Yes, it looks that way."

STAFF: "FUUUUUCK!!!!!"

That exchange is then immediately followed by the worker recounting some horribly rude or disgusting experience he/she had with Chinese tourists while visiting Japan.

But I'm ever-the-optimist. I will hold out hope that Kishida will announce this week that visa requirements and other restrictions will be dropped from 1/1/2023.

 

[Frenchy]

The news is spreading like wildfire around here. Just about every single employee in my office approached me today, now planning a trip to Japan and wondering what I think about the news. And I swear, every single conversation is basically identical and verbatim:

STAFF: "Is Japan really opening up again???"

ME: "Yes, looks like it will reopen in October."

STAFF: "Are they going to let the CHINESE back in???"

ME: "Yes, it looks that way."

STAFF: "FUUUUUCK!!!!!"

That exchange is then immediately followed by the worker recounting some horribly rude or disgusting experience he/she had with Chinese tourists while visiting Japan.

But I'm ever-the-optimist. I will hold out hope that Kishida will announce this week that visa requirements and other restrictions will be dropped from 1/1/2023.

If I remember well Chinese still had to apply for a visa and it will certainly continue like that after the re-opening . So if the more or less official quota of visas for Chinese people is relatively low compared to pre-Covid situation (which is a reasonable assumption to make) we should see less mainland-China tourists anyway

 

[Keihan]

If I remember well Chinese still had to apply for a visa and it will certainly continue like that after the re-opening . So if the more or less official quota of visas for Chinese people is relatively low compared to pre-Covid situation (which is a reasonable assumption to make) we should see less mainland-China tourists anyway

How dare you tease me, in my fragile condition!!??

But seriously, isn't the Chinese government still imposing restrictions on citizens regarding international travel? I thought the whole CCP "Zero COVID" assholery was keeping the borders shut and Chinese tourists stuck at home.

I know I've said it before, but you all just wait to see what happens when the borders reopen. Be it Chinese, Americans, whatever...it's going to be disgusting. When our state finally reopened to tourism, 30K+ per day started flooding in and, combined with the bottom-dollar, wholesale prices of airfare and hotel rooms, it wasn't just that the type of tourists who could've never afforded to come here previously were now arriving in record numbers; these scumbags were parading around town with this astonishing air of inflated ego and smug entitlement, like we OWED them a fucking vacation after shutting down the borders for so long. Add to that the numerous incidents of restaurant and mall staff getting into fistfights with shit-kicking trailer-park tribes who were pissed off about the statewide mask mandate ("BACK IN FLORI-DUH WE AIN'T GOTTA WEAR NO MASKS!!") and it was months and months of misery here.

Luckily for us, things began normalizing, prices began going back up again (largely due to Japanese visiting again) and we were soon no longer an affordable vacation destination. Southwest Airlines opening a route here certainly didn't help, but the city/state cracking down on AirBNB and illegal (cheap) vacation rentals mitigated that potential disaster. Last I checked, the average RT fare to Japan around here is about $1200, so certainly nowhere near the $545 I used to pay pre-pandemic. That should help minimize the number of backpacking shitbags showing up next month, and thankfully Biden is POTUS for a couple more years so gas prices and inflation should stay nice and high, but Japan's problem is the projected JPY at 145-150 to USD.

Not only is Japan a phenomenally desirable tourist destination, it's now one of the cheapest in the world and about to open up again. UH OH!!

 

[Gorffy]

Shit, I need to go to Kyoto ASAP then. But I suspect if they open soon (October?), there won't be that much of an influx anyway because most people won't be able to afford the ticket prices for flights on this short of a notice.

Other than that, goodbye cheap airbnbs and hotels.

Usually there isn't a price premium to buy on short notice on these Asian flights. Just depends on availability

 

[Doggyfong]

I bought my flights since Feb this year...
Apologies for being part of the raiding team when the doors are open
Kishida let the dog out