Hi! I’m Nathan and welcome to Ninja monkey. The place for all things related to Japan.
I give travel tips, insights, create fun related videos and, I’m currently focusing on what’s
going on behind Japan’s closed borders.
So, If you are a potential tourist, student, business person, or any other type of traveler,
you’ve come to the right place! So join team Ninja monkey if you haven’t already
and make sure your bell notifications are on so that you don’t miss any future videos.
My aim is to put all the readily available information into one easy to follow video!
I do the research so that you don’t have to.
And, as always, all links are included in the video description so that you can do your
own reading if you wish to.
In this week’s video I will recap some of the main stories including; the lifting of
the state of emergency, Japan’s vaccine drive, The vaccine passport, a slightly deeper
view into the white paper on tourism and I answer your questions towards the end of the
video.
So, lets get started.
The country’s state of emergency will be lifted in all but Okinawa Prefecture, as cases
continue to decline nationwide. Quasi-emergency measures, however, will remain in place in
seven of the nine prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka.
“The burden on the health care system is beginning to lessen, but foot traffic is increasing
and the growing presence of variants make it crucial that we prevent a rebound,” Yasutoshi
Nishimura, the minister leading the country’s coronavirus response, said.
Last Wednesday, Japan reported 1,710 cases across the country, a big decline from the
fourth wave in May, when the country logged more than 7,000 cases in a day multiple times.
Now this is all good news, now that the state of emergency is been lifted we might see some
further updates coming.
Now talking about the Olympics, A final decision on weather or not to allow domestic spectators
into Olympic venues is set to take place later this month, however Up to 10,000 people could
be allowed to watch Olympic events in Tokyo this summer, after Japanese health experts
approved plans to raise the number of spectators at sports venues. Spectators were originally
capped at 5,000 people or 50% of a venue’s capacity, whichever is smaller. But this now
could be up to 10,000 people.
As overseas fans are already banned, Japan’s government is hopeful to have a limited number
of domestic spectators at Olympic venues to create some form of atmosphere.
The presence of a crowd would be welcomed by athletes, who face a very different time
in Tokyo, where they must submit to regular testing and maintain social distancing, among
other requirements. I’ll be going into more detail about the Olympics in a future video.
I believe that vaccination is one of the ways that can help Japan reopen in a safe manner.
The more people that are vaccinated the safer it will be for Japan to allow people in. And
the sooner this happens the sooner reopening will accelerate, so let’s check out this
week’s update and news related to the vaccine too.
As of the 17th of June, there have now been 9,686,290 doses administered to healthcare
workers (out of which 4,246,391 are second doses.) This is an increase 726,376 healthcare
worker doses since last week’s update.
19,200,847 elderly citizen doses have now also been administered. This also includes
the second dose, therefore making it an increase of 6,752,636 elderly citizen doses since my
last update.
This means that there have now been collectively 28,887,137 jabs administered including second
doses and an increase of 7,479,012 inoculations including the second dose since my last update.
Breaking this down further shows that, 5,439,899 medical workers and 15,323,224 seniors have
received at least one dose therefore a total of 20,763,123 People out of the population
of 126 million are now either fully inoculated or on their way to be fully vaccinated.
This week we continue to see a substantial increase. Putting this into perspective, a
total of 5,477,568 jabs have been given this week including second doses. With the highest
daily rate being on June 14th when 917,586 doses were administered according to the information
made available by the government which is always subject to change as late adjustments
can occur.
Last week’s announcement that Japan aims to vaccinate all citizens who want the vaccine
by November, along with the start of opening up vaccinations to younger people earlier
than expected is starting to show that the drive has picked up speed across the country.
Vaccinations for people aged 65 or older are underway at venues, which are operated by
the Defence Ministry. But the sites have plenty of free slots through to June the 27th.
Therefore, the ministry says that the venues will start accepting people aged between 18
and 64 from across the country. The move is aimed at preventing inoculation capacities
from being wasted.
An example of how vaccinating the whole population might be carried out can be seen in Fukuoka
City which announced that COVID-19 vaccination vouchers for the city residents 64 years of
age and under would be mailed out on June 30th.
A schedule was included which although can be different in other cities and, we must
also bear in mind the size of Fukuoka ( 1.5 million people in the city or 5.1 million
across the prefecture) will surely make it quite different to for example Tokyo, but
at least this might also give a good idea of how things might progress across the country.
And as we can see people aged 16-29 will be hopefully start receiving their vaccines towards
the end of July moving forward.
I’ve repeatedly covered the Vaccine passport; however, it seems that the Japanese government
plans to allow municipalities to issue "vaccine passports" or documents certifying coronavirus
vaccinations, starting at the end of July.
The certificates could help residents who have been inoculated in Japan travel abroad
without being subjected to restrictions at border crossings. They will also be available
for non-Japanese citizens who are vaccinated, but it remains unclear which countries will
choose to accept the documents.
The passports will include information such as the holder’s date of inoculation and
the manufacturer of the shot they received. They will be available both in English and
Japanese, according to Kyodo News. However, Japan is not planning to establish a system
that would allow vaccine passports issued abroad to be accepted when people enter the
country.
And according to the article, Japan is not planning to make vaccine passports a requirement
for entering the country out of concern that such a move could lead to criticism of discrimination
against those who haven’t been inoculated for various reasons.
However, one senior administration official fears that other countries may complain about
Japan’s tight border controls, including for individuals who are vaccinated, even as
it issues passports to its residents for travel abroad.
BOOM! So, It’s ok for Japan to offer and expect other countries to accept their citizen’s
vaccine certificates but, its not ok to accept a vaccine certificate from another country
to enter Japan?
What do you think team? Selfish? cautious? Do you think other countries should accept
theirs’s if they don’t accept in return?
From the start, when I started reporting on a Japanese vaccine passport, it was clear
that this was what might happen as there was never mention of accepting international certification.
Even though this might be bad news for those hoping to travel with a vaccine passport into
the country, I wouldn’t write it off just yet. We will have to closely monitor this
space and see how other countries respond. And, bear in mind that if the vaccine drive
is a success, then vaccination passports might actually not be required due to the country
having the immunity needed regardless.
As always, I love interacting with you in the comment section so please let me know
what you think, or just say hello and where you are from! And if you are interested in
what I get up to in the daily, then perhaps check out my Instagram too!
A few days ago a white paper on tourism was published, I did actually post a video on
this topic when the news first broke, so you can check that one out if you havn’t already.
In summery, the Japanese government is hoping to cautiously reopen some form of tourism
into the country and continues to maintain its goal to increase the number of visitors
from overseas to 60 million in 2030. This basically means that they expect tourism to
pick to where it was, once things reopen eventually.
The whitepaper also stated that the government will start encouraging trips in small groups
from this fiscal year in order to gradually bring back foreign visitors. As Japan’s
fiscal year runs from the 1st April to 31 March, this should mean that small groups
will be allowed into the country for some form of tourism anytime between now and the
end of March 2022.
Further investigation reveals that for the gradual revival of inbound tourism, Japan
will be conducting a trial small-scale package tour from countries and regions where the
situation of the coronavirus infection is low. The tour organizer will thoroughly implement
prevention measures and small-scale package tours will be trialled to foster local acceptance
and create a "safe and secure new travel style". The link to this article is in Japanese and
can, along with all other sources be found in the video description.
The white paper actually goes into all sort of statistics and details such as how the
tourism has been affected, loss of earnings and employment, the support the government
is giving and efforts to strengthen the tourist industry. One example is that Tourists brought
in 744 billion Yen in 2020 which was actually a 84.5% decrease from 2019.
The document also demonstrates how this pandemic is changing tourism trends and shows examples
of small group tours such as walking, cycling or mountaineering trips, yoga tourism and
gastronomy group trips, mostly away from densely populated areas.
Also included is mention of thorough measures to reduce the spread of the virus. through
support and awareness.
Wifi and multilingual support and implementations of package tours with infection control measures.
The use of a contact confirmation app and the acquisition of a pre-departure inspection
certificates.
So that’s quite a lot to take in and if you are still watching, thanks for watching
all the way to the end! I like to answer a comment at the end of each video, so start
sending in the questions and I might select yours to answer! I also hope that you can
join in a future livestream where I can answer you directly!
A comment by Cem Alagozulu says: ‘Hey Ninja Monkey, I was wondering, once this is all
over (the travel ban / vaccinating / etc...) What type of content will you make after that?
^.^’
Firstly, I think that that is a very good question. I will continue making Japan related
videos, probably include some form of a Japan news element from time to time but will be
branching out too. My channel already has several travel guides like ‘Where to stay
in Tokyo’ or ‘Level up your Japan planning’ I’ve also made some Japanese cooking videos,
collaborated with other like-minded content creators in the past, so I’ll continue creating
guides and related videos like those. And obviously once I do get my feet on Japanese
soil, I’ll be making travel vlogs hopefully in unique locations and meeting new people
too. I’ve recently started live streaming so this is something that I’m also keen
to explore further!
And most importantly, Where do you think this channel should go after the borders open up?
– Do you like my ideas, do you have any of your own? Are you a content creator and
would like to collaborate with me? Please let me know in the comment section.
I’m also interested in seeing how I can improve my videos, Send me a message on Instagram
or twitter with your suggestions. What do you like, what don’t you like? How do you
think I can improve my content further? As always I’d love to hear your thoughts. Lets
get a conversation started in the comment section. I do try to respond to as many as
I can!
Don’t forget to like the video too!
Till next time . Arigatou, gracias thanks bye!