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
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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 be looking at the covid situation in Japan and giving you
an easy to follow recap of how the vaccination program is progressing. I Will continue to
explore some Olympic related news and also look at the potential future of travel, some
other interesting stories and look at viewer comments too!
So, lets get started.
Firstly, I have a brief overview of daily positives for you to have a good idea of how
things are progressing in regards to covid cases in Japan.
Covid positive cases remain rather steady nationwide although increasing slightly this
week, with June 30th having the largest recorded number of positives in the week, with 1811
cases recorded across the country on this day.
Bear in mind that these numbers sometimes change, as occasionally the previous day’s
full results are added the next day and daily figures are also dependent on the number of
tests done on that day.
All eyes however are now focused on Tokyo which has started to report over 600 daily
cases, for example Just on the 1st of July 660 new positives out of 7,998. tests were
reported in Tokyo.
With the Olympics only three weeks away, and the whole world watching it will be interesting
to see what if anything is put in place in the coming weeks.
I continue to be a firm believer that vaccination is potentially a way out of the situation
and keeping an eye on both case numbers and immunity will continue to help guide anyone
wanting to make informed decisions in the future. So let’s have a look at how Japan’s
vaccine drive has been doing this week
As of the 1st July, there have now been 10,882,527 doses administered to healthcare workers (out
of which 4,931,043 are second doses.) This is an increase of 556,467 healthcare worker
doses since last week’s update.
Additionally 33,048,522 elderly citizen doses have now also been administered. This also
includes the second dose, therefore making it an increase of 7,511,447 elderly citizen
doses since my last update.
And looking at doses given to those under the age of 64 which I will from now on refer
to as the general public: 1,890,608 first doses and 427,315 second doses have been administered
to the general population, which means that there have now been collectively 46,248,972
doses administered including second doses to the whole population, which is an increase
of 9,034,772 inoculations including the second dose since last week’s update.
Breaking this down further shows that, 30,249,911 people have received at least one dose out
of the population of 126 million and are now either fully inoculated or on their way to
be fully vaccinated.
Making that 24.01% of the population having had 1 dose and 12.70% of the population that
are fully inoculated with both doses.
With a total of 6,818,280 jabs been given this week including second doses. And daily
doses now mostly reaching above the one million daily doses and mostly accelerating, we continue
to see improvements in this area.
Remembering that the Japanese government has indicated that they want to complete vaccinating
the population by November, do you think the will be able to do this? I’d love to hear
your thoughts.
As always let’s get a conversation started in the comment section, I love interacting
with the community and knowing your thoughts! and I do try to answer as many as I can. However,
if you are interested in what I get up to in the daily you can also check out my Instagram
where I’m a little more active. I’m currently working on some other types of Japan related
content which I’m really looking forward to sharing with you in the coming weeks so
keep an eye out for those too!
Tokyo, which only a few weeks ago lifted its state of emergency, as previously mentioned
is starting see a rise in cases. And Tokyo continues in what is referred to as a 'quasi'
state of emergency.
However, reports state that depending on the extent of the strain on the medical system,
the government could reinstate a full state of emergency for Tokyo, with a decision expected
around July 8, when International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach is due to
arrive in Japan. If this is the case then potentially Tokyo could be put in some sort
of state of emergency during the actual Olympics.
And with the July 23rd opening ceremony of the delayed Tokyo Olympics less than a month
away, there is still much to be decided. Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics continue to consider
a ban on spectators at the opening ceremony, people familiar with the discussions say.
Such a decision would be based on whether current coronavirus-related restrictions on
activity in the Japanese capital are extended.
And as Olympic delegations arrive, Special entry lanes for Olympic athletes and officials
have opened at the two international airports serving Tokyo, Narita and Haneda. The lanes
are part of a "bubble" approach to curb the spread of the virus, keeping Olympic arrivals
separate from ordinary passengers at immigration and the airport exits. However the President
of the United states, President Joe Biden will not accept Japan's invitation to attend
the Olympics with a chance of the first lady attending in his place.
"The president is not planning to attend the Games. He will certainly be rooting for the
athletes, as will I -- I'm kind of obsessed with the Olympics. But that's not his -- we
will have a delegation from the United States, as we have historically had," Psaki says.
"But we will continue to also convey the public health guidelines and guidance that we've
been ... delivering out there about only essential travel."
The Tokyo Olympics organizers have also extended the duration of the opening ceremony on July
23 by 30 minutes, to allow extra time for the delegations to enter the stadium at a
safe distance. The athletes are supposed to walk at least 2 meters apart as a COVID-19
precaution.
So, In a slight change of tone but continuing with Olympic related news,
The BBC have released their Olympic advert or promo, and I thought it would be interesting
to get your thoughts on it. I’ll only highlight a few scenes and I’ll leave a link in the
description so that you can check out the whole video, (after watching this one naturally)
I would love to know your thoughts on it.
Is this the way that you imagine or visualise Japan?
Do you think they’ve done a good job depicting Tokyo or Japan?
Various Japanese comments have actually been quite interesting.
Ranging from comments like “looks like china,” Or, “there’s too much hong kong mixed
in,” To, “its like cyberpunk”
In my experience, this is perhaps the image I had of Japan before visiting, but since
my many visit I’d say Japan isn’t quite like this. However, I guess this is what happens
when you only focus on big cities like Tokyo or Osaka and combine the elements foreigners
might be attracted to and combine them into a video. What are your thoughts?
In other travel related news, especially for onsen lovers. The popular tourist spot in
Odaiba. The hot spring theme park Oedo Onsen has announced it will be shuttering for good
this September as its fixed lease term expires at the end of the year.
Unfortunately, I never got to visit, and this location was on my to visit list but it looks
likely that this will never happen.
Have you ever visited? Would you consider it a tourist spot? If so, was it a worthwhile
trip and are you sad to see it go? We will have to however see if what seemed to be a
popular attraction for both domestic and foreigners will pop up elsewhere in Tokyo.
Looking into tourist spots, Its actually encouraging to see that most have reopened with only a
few closed indefinitely for now. However, my understanding is that there has been an
effect on businesses such as souvenir shops, restaurants and coffeeshops surrounding many
of these tourist locations which remain closed. I am hopeful that many will bounce back once
tourism returns but I can imagine this being a slow process to being with. And although
the first tourists back might reap the benefits of empty streets to begin with the downside
might be a lack of tourist related stores which in my opinion adds to the atmosphere
of many of these places.
Would you prefer quiet tourist spots with no or little cultural atmosphere or would
you prefer to return once things are back to normal? What do you think tourism will
be like when we return?
So, as we look forward towards future tourism, one thing is for certain. The Tokyo Olympics,
with all of its up’s and downs will certainly pave the way for a bright future once tourists
return.
New tourism-related infrastructure will increase productivity, capacity, and attraction
Not only are there Improved transport links for example the added yamanote line station
and the expansion of Terminal 2 at Haneda Airport which was partly done to create capacity
for the surge of Olympics visitors and was previously domestic only, will surely serve
for a better future tourism experience. The fact many stations, and leisure facilities
have been modernised with new easier to follow signage and face lifts will only mean an improved
experience once travellers are able to enter the country.
Ralph Hollister, Travel and Tourism Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The positive aspects
of Tokyo 2020’s tourism legacy will offer no quick fix for the amount of investment
that will be lost due to no international visitation and restricted domestic visitation.
However, it offers benefits for Japan in the long-term, and will assist the nation by creating
a more robust and varied tourism product for future years.”
So
thanks for watching this far. I like to answer or highlight a comment at the end of each
video, so start sending in the questions and I might select yours to feature! I also hope
that you can also join in a future livestream where I can answer you directly!
Viewer BCGEN says: as a student thats majoring in international business finance and minoring
in japanese i am required a visit to japan so I'm just confused why wouldn't be able
to go in the country with vaccination and testing (if you can include visas and such
in the end of ur next video you will be a god.
So I really wanted to try to answer this question because I get many similar questions regarding
the issue of entry with visa, especially from students. I’ve replied to this many times
but I don’t mind repeating as I’m aware that there might be new viewers to the channel.
And I actually made a previous video related to this topic called who and how can you enter
Japan.
Unfortunately nothing much has changed in regards to entry into Japan and pretty much
all visa programs have been suspended including business track and student entry. Only Japanese
residents, long term residents or specific people with exceptional or special circumstances
are able to enter Japan and even then its quite a long and difficult process.
Some government sponsored programs have indeed been given special entry permission for example
MEXT students and people on the JET program but for now no one else that im aware of.
I still hold on to the hope that more clarity will come soon after the Olympics and Paralympics
have concluded and as always I will continue to look in this area and update you when this
does actually happen. I know that this might not be what you want to hear but I hope it
clarifies the situation whilst you wait for further information. As always I continue
to recommend you contact your embassy or place of study and pressure them or ask questions
regarding this matter. And if anyone has any further information to share I would very
much appreciate you let me know!
So, anyway thanks so much for watching all the way to the end, If you’ve watched this
far then hopefully it means that you liked the video! So please support me by liking
the video as it tells YouTube that you are interested in this type of content. And if
you found this especially useful then how about sharing it with like minded friends
or in facebook groups etc.
As always, let's get a conversation started in the comment section. I do try to respond
to as many as I can! I’d love to know your thoughts!
Till next time . Arigatou, gracias thanks bye!