Update 28th August
Hi! I’m Nathan and welcome to Ninja monkey. The place for all things related to Japan
where I’m currently focusing on what’s going on behind Japan’s closed borders.
My aim is to put all the readily available information into one place, to make it easy
for you to follow what’s happening behind Japan’s closed border, so that you can make
informed decisions leading to hopefully answering the question “When will Japan’s border
open?”
And, as always, all links are included in the video description so that you can do your
own reading if you wish to. Time stamps are also available for your convenience too!
In this video… I’ll go into vaccine and cases in Tokyo and nationwide, we will also
look at some very important information regarding a potential signal regarding changes to how
the vaccine passport will be used and potentially allowing travel and explore how sadly pokemon
stores are closing down and continue to look into what future updates await us once we
are able to enter.
I also continue to believe that keeping informed regarding relevant statistics is important
and that Japan striking a good balance between cases nationwide and the vaccine roll out
continues to be a crucial part of how Japan will slowly open up its border,
So, let’s have a look at what’s happening regarding cases in Tokyo and nationwide in
Japan since my last update.
I continue to presented on screen some stats for you, including nationwide cases, Tokyo’s
numbers and the amount of PCR tests done nationwide. So, feel free to pause the video if you want
to. All stats are up to the latest Government officially available data since the release
of this video update.
As Japan continues to impose a state of emergency throughout much of the country,
Tokyo reported 4,227 infections on Aug. 27, although this number has not yet been included
in the official government data when I was recording this video, I managed to find plenty
or other reports to confirm this. It’s the fourth day in a row with over 4,000 cases
Tokyo has in total to date recorded 332,088 infections, making it the highest count of
any prefecture.
And as of Aug. 26, there were 4,156 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Tokyo, with 276 showing
severe symptoms.
--
Lets follow on to how things are progressing in regards of the vaccine drive:
As of the latest officially available information from the 27thth August,: there have now been
a total of 124,534,483 doses administered. That’s actually 8,794,485 more than last
week’s update and includes first and second doses. This seems to indicate that the vaccine
program is keeping a steady pace, providing over a million daily doses.
So let’s break down this figure even further, so that we can fully understand where these
doses are actually going:
69,261,828 Make up people who have only had one dose and 55,272,655 make up those who
have received both jabs and would therefore be considered fully vaccinated.
That means that out of the population of around 126 million people: 54.5% have now received
one dose of the vaccine and 43.5% have received both doses of the vaccine.
With more than half of those eligible and wanting, receiving one dose and it looking
likely that half the population will also be fully inoculated, likely within the next
two weeks, this is certainly a big milestone I look forward to reporting soon.
And for more clarity, regarding the elderly which are usually considered the most vulnerable
group and make up people 65 years of age and older 86.9% of those wishing to take the vaccine
are now inoculated with both doses too.
In other vaccine related news:
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has set up a special inoculation centre for those
aged 16 to 39 at Shibuya City Labor & Welfare Hall near JR Shibuya Station.
Interestingly people can get their shots without an appointment at this venue if they bring
their vaccine coupon and ID but as a result of too much demand 300 numbered tickets were
issued at around 8 a.m. due to the extremely long queue no more tickets were issued.
The metropolitan government had been urging people on its website to refrain from coming
early to avoid heatstroke and other reasons. However, they had to come early to get one
of the cherished tickets.
"We are very sorry. We will consider improvement measures," a metro Tokyo representative said.
This next story could potentially be a game changer and may be a clear signal towards
when things might change, or at least start to change.
Prime Minister Suga has mentioned the use of vaccine certificates as a way to restore
the economy once the current state of emergency is lifted. A Bloomberg article about gains
in Japanese travel shares as a result of Suga floating the use of the passport to restore
the economy quotes sugar as saying:
“We will carefully consider how to restore daily life and socioeconomic activities, such
as bars and restaurants, travel and events, including how to actively use vaccination
certificates” once the state of emergency is lifted”
Currently the vaccine passport is only mainly used for Japanese residents to prove vaccination
status when entering other countries, and its up to each individual country to decide
their own rules and regulations regarding quarantine and testing.
Currently Japan does not accept any vaccine passport, including their own issued certificate
to reduce or remove the mandatory 14 day quarantine. Meaning that even Japanese nationals would
need to meet quarantine rules when returning to their own country. This has made it very
hard for for example Japanese business trips and Japanese people to actually go on vacation,
as who would really want to be put in a situation of having to quarantine on their return.
Although the article doesn’t explicitly mention overseas travel or the use of the
vaccine passport to reduce or remove quarantine for tourists or other types of visitors. The
main thing to take away for now is that it seems that there will be a review into how
the vaccine certificate will operate after the state of emergency is lifted. This is
set to happen on September 12th. Therefore my personal opinion is that we will start
hearing more specific information after this date. Most importantly decisions are starting
to happen after this date, therefore hopefully not just looking at the vaccine passport but
also other issues such as student entry and other types of visas currently on hold! So
lets wait and see what happens.
How do you see this information Team? Am I being to optimistic? I’d really love to
know your thoughts and how you have interpreted this.
-- Another interesting article mentions that
Qantas airlines does not believe that quarantine free travel will become available for at least
another 4 months. The article mainly aimed towards the Australian sector says:
“Based on the current vaccination projection rates and the Australian Government’s plan
for reopening borders, we are preparing for Qantas and Jetstar international flights to
resume ... from mid-December 2021 between Australia and New Zealand,”
Interestingly Qantas gives the same timeline for the resumption of flights from Australia
to Fiji, Singapore, the US, Japan, the UK and Canada.
I wouldn’t personally look to much into this but I thought It inporant to give you
all information available.
As a pokemon fan, this next story makes me quite sad.
Pokémon Centers and Stores in Japan are closing indefinitely due to the virus,
The closures will affect 14 stores across the country, including all the Pokemon Cafés
in Tokyo and Osaka.
The 14 outlets across Japan will close for the time being until further notice.
Only four Pokémon stores will remain open in Japan: the Pokémon Center in Kanazawa,
along with stores in Ehime, Oita and Okayama. However, the Okayama location is set to close
permanently on August 31.
I do hope that these stores are able to bounce back once some sort of normality returns.
This is once again an example of how what I consider to be a tourist attraction is being
affected by this pandemic. I wouldn’t be surprised if other pokemon stores sadly closed
perminantly too.
If you are interested in Pokemon, then check out my pokemon store reviews, pokemon café
vlogs, an amazing pikachu outbreak vlog and even some pokemon go events I’ve experienced
in previous Japan trips. I’d love to know your opinions so please feel free to leave
a comment on those videos too!
So to finish off, I like to look at what advances are happening that might impact future travel
to Japan and in keeping with accessibility an inclined elevator has been installed at
Tokyo’s Akasaka-mitsuke Station and is the first of its type in Tokyo. This elevator
travels on a slope, following the same incline as the stairs.
ordinary vertical elevators need vertical cavities to be created, requiring a fair amount
of money and construction work. However, inclined elevators use an already existing space, so
no major excavation work is necessary.
Tokyo Metro says it will consider installing more of these elevators at other stations
in future.
So, as always, Thanks so much for watching this far and staying tuned.. it must mean
that you are liking the content so far, so please consider liking and subscribing if
you haven’t already and press the bell notification to keep up to date with all future updates.
So that’s the end of the video, thank you so much for watching.
Till next time . Arigatou, gracias thanks bye!