Hi! I’m Nathan and welcome back to Ninja monkey. The place for all things related to Japan,
where I help you stay updated with current affairs regarding entry and put together
videos to help YOU plan potential future trips or create interesting Japan related content too!
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Anyway lets get straight to the video
On the topic of vaccinations, Japan has now administered a total of 244,711,875 doses,
this includes first, second and booster jabs too.
This means that for now, out of the population of around 126 million
people. 80.6% have now received one dose of the vaccine and 79.3% have received both doses.
In terms of booster jabs, third doses have been administered nationwide,
and equals around 33.3% of the population. That’s an additional 6,392,222 booster jabs
administered since the last update and an increase of an additional 5% of the
population now having had the third dose, in line with the 5% a week increase I mentioned last week
and would mean that the booster program will likely come to an end in around two
months’ time.. Maybe in time for an official tourism update? We will have to wait and see.
Anyway, regarding the Covid situation in Tokyo and Nationwide
In the capital there are currently 33.5% of standard covid beds in use, that’s 2,425 patients
admitted into hospital in Tokyo, a promising decrease of 646 compared to last week’s update.
And in terms of severe patients there are 42, meaning 8.2% of beds set aside for severe
patients are in use. Once again a continued promising reduction since last week’s update.
Anyway here is the Tokyo and Nationwide update up to and including the 19th of March:
Tokyo alone reported 7,444 new cases on Saturday, continuing to show a week on week decline.
Whilst Nationwide its positive to report that numbers are also declining, with
44,711 cases reported across all of Japan on Saturday,
impressively down by some 10,000 cases compared to last weeks update!
The cumulative number of cases in Japan topped 6 million earlier this week. And although the pace
of increase in cumulative cases has been slowing down, some experts are concerned that a fresh wave
could hit the country due to the spread of the BA.2 omicron variant, but it is also promising
to know that most are vaccinated, and will likely mean more infection but less hospitalisations.
In continued positive news, and in line with how the situation is starting to stabilise;
Japan will end all remaining quasi-state of emergency restrictions as scheduled next week,
with areas that were under emergency measures including the Tokyo metropolitan region
covering Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama, Aichi in central Japan,
Osaka and Kyoto being free of these restrictions for the first time since January.
"The number of newly confirmed cases has been on a clear downtrend," Kishida said at
a press conference. "We are beginning to see the end of the sixth wave."
However, Kishida also warned that the fatality rate
and the percentage of people developing severe symptoms are higher than the flu.
"For a while, there will be a transition period," Kishida
said. "It's a period during which we continue exercising maximum caution
while returning to normal life as much as possible by ensuring safety."
Team, Japan no longer being in any type of state of emergency is actually a very
positive indicator, Numbers continue to slowly decrease and the situation in hospitalisations
in certainly going down or stabilising. And as mentioned in many of my updates, other countries
are starting to open up to tourism, and for Japan I do believe it’s a matter of when and how.
Kishida has said he is looking at the Covid and border situation in other countries,
and the fact that many countries are starting to bring forward their original plans for example
New Zealand will reopen its border to Australians in April and international
travellers who do not require visas in May, bringing forward the move by SEVERAL months.
With Vaccinated Australians being able to enter the New Zealand isolation-free as from
April 13th and fully vaccinated travellers from visa-waiver countries such as Japan, the
United States, Britain and South Korea from May 2nd. This date was originally meant to be July!
"Closing our border was one of the first actions we took to stop COVID-19 two years ago,"
the prime minister said in a statement. "It did the job we needed. But now that we're
highly vaccinated and predicted to be off our Omicron peak, it's now safe to open up."
In the case of New Zealand, all visitors must be fully vaccinated and provide a negative result
prior to departure and will be tested upon arrival and five days after arrival.
And although a full reopening of the border to travellers from non-visa-waiver
countries is not expected until October under the existing plan, this could also be brought forward.
Also, In the case of the United Kingdom, All remaining COVID travel measures, including the
Passenger Locator Form and tests for unvaccinated arrivals, have now ended in the United Kingdom.
Previously only fully vaccinated people were able to enter the UK without the need for tests.
And potentially most importantly and interesting to keep an eye on
is Japan’s neighbour South Korea, who will be allowing fully vaccinated foreign travellers to
enter and travel throughout the country without any quarantine measures beginning April 1.
Visitors to South Korea will require a quarantine exemption
that is available for all people who have received their last dose of a full vaccine
in the last six months or who have had their booster shot.
Travellers to South Korea are required to upload their vaccine and personal information
before entering Korea, This will provide people who upload their vaccine status
a QR code, which they must then scan upon entry.
Although it’s important to note that travellers from some countries
still need to quarantine for seven days.
Team I am incredibly interested to see if South Korea reopening to tourists will get
Japan’s attention what are your thoughts? It is after all in my opinion likely one of the few
countries that Japan will be closely monitoring and also a direct competitor in terms of tourism.
The last few years has seen a big increase in people interested in South Korea
due to K-dramas, with recent hit-series such as squid game
and K-pop bands such as BTS making South Korea a very desirable tourist destination, especially
now that it is reopening (and yes I am Army and my bias is V just in case you are interested )
I wonder team, is there anyone watching tempted to change travel plans and head over to South Korea?
It isn’t quite japan but it does have a lot to offer too and therefore might be the perfect
destination if Japan does not reopen soon. So the question has shifted to When will Japan
open up to tourism.. and it seems that The Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) has told
Australian travellers to start planning holidays in Japan ahead of an anticipated return to travel.
JNTO’s Sydney office executive director, Yoko Tanaka, during a media night promotion said:
“The border is opening step by step, with business travellers and international students
currently able to enter, so we know consumer travel is the next logical step,” said Tanaka.
“We cannot wait to welcome Australians back to Japan
and now is the time to start planning a trip.”
So … Team, it is indeed always good to plan, and its likely that now is
a good time to start planning ahead, researching itineraries and logging down places of interest,
but I would be cautious if booking flights.. Always do so reading the
small print and I recommend making sure your flight is refundable or flexible.
Anyway team, Once again its great delivering what seems like positive news every week..
I believe that japan finally not being in a state of emergency is an important indicator
and I am now curious to see if Japan does indeed react to Korea’s reopening what do you think?
Team, tourism will be back and as always, I will continue informing you of any changes or news
that might give any indicators to the status of Japan’s borders changing.
Already there is a natural shift towards tourism
now that it seems the situation regarding students is starting nearly dealt with.
Anyway Team, Don’t forget to say hi in the comment section, and like the video too..
not only do comments and likes help this video reach a wider audience but I do love knowing
where each of you are from! I love reading your comments too and I know that the last week or
so I’ve been a bit quiet to replying to comments but Ive moved or will be moving back to my flat
which means Ill have that extra time to read, so I look forward to reading them.
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all proceeds go back into the channel so that I can create better content! Patreon is a great
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Other methods of support can also be found in the video description too!
So.. that’s all for now,
Stay positive team! (but covid negative) Till next time, I’ll continue researching and keeping
an eye on all updates until the next video! So.. till then, Arigatou, gracias, thanks bye!