hi i'm nathan and welcome back to ninja
monkey the place for all things related
to japan
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button too it certainly has been a week
of ups and downs and sometimes i must
admit that i feel like i'm just
repeating myself but there is always
something to highlight whether good or
bad it's important to stay in the loop i
keep on reminding myself that although
japan continues to be close to tourists
and it is frustrating we are nearly
halfway down with 2022 and i am
optimistic that tourism will return
before the end of this year in this
update we'll continue to look at what's
been happening behind japan's closed
borders look at a huge change in entry
policy starting in june and hopefully
some of these stories and information
will continue to give us indicators
regarding when japan will actually
reopen or how it might look for us
tourists once japan does indeed open up
we might not have a definitive answer to
when will japan's tourism return but it
seems that with each update we get a
little bit closer or maybe not i don't
know anyway let's quickly start off by
briefly diving into the vaccination
drive and the situation in tokyo
nationwide so that we get a good
baseline of what's happening on that
front as of may the 20th 57 of the
population has now received the third
dose and encouragingly 88.6 of those
aged 65 years or older have now received
the booster shot too also tocus hospital
stand at 15.7 percent of standard
covered beds in use
that's
1137 patients admitted into hospital in
tokyo
and in terms of severe patients there
are only three in the whole of the
capital city meaning that only no twin
six percent of the 510 beds set aside
for severe patients in tokyo are
actually in use team
it's now been around two weeks since a
golden week public holiday and although
numbers initially seemed to be going up
japan confirmed 37
438 new cases on friday which is
actually down by around 2000 from last
week
additionally the number of patients with
severe symptoms also continues to fall
even tokyo which reported
3573 new cases is starting to see a
potential slowdown with 536 less cases
compared to last week two cases in the
capital have now been falling for seven
days in a row the situation seems to be
under control and improving but it seems
that japan continues to be reluctant to
open up to the world or at least will do
so in her terms this week's headlines
regarding tourism reopening have been
rather interesting some news outlets are
being realistic by highlighting japan's
drip drop approach to reopening her
borders whilst others are kidding
themselves by stating that japan has or
will reopen to tourists in the month of
june i want to make one thing clear from
the information currently available
this does not seem to be the case and
perhaps those news outlets rejoicing
that japan has reopened for tourism are
actually not technically wrong
japan has actually reopened for
approximately 50 tourists that's right
you've heard right 50 tourists starting
this month and potentially increasing
this number or changing strategy in june
i however would not confidently proclaim
that japan has reopened to tourism not
just yet anyway in this update i'll try
to balance out the more negative or slow
news with some things that are happening
that could maybe who knows change
japan's approach on tuesday japan's
tourism agency said in a statement that
small guided tour groups from the united
states
thailand singapore and australia would
be allowed to visit japan as a test
with tourists needing to have been fully
vaccinated and have the booster shot too
in principle this test of sorts will
allow officials to gather information
about whether the country can reopen its
borders safely to more tourists in the
future visitors taking part in this test
will be required to follow safety
guidelines and will be accompanied
throughout the entire stay by tour
guides according to japan's tourism
agency team this actually seems to be
the resurrection of a pilot program that
was originally supposed to begin last
fall
and it is in my opinion
the pilot program has been resurrected
when things are so different the
situation in japan last fall compared to
the current situation with more hospital
capacity antiviral medications at hand
and a booster program now at over 57
should have meant a different strategic
approach but maybe i'm wrong on this one
i don't know it does make me wonder
whether there was some kind of loss in
translation moment in koshida's words in
his address to the city of london
earlier this month where he actually
said
at the end of last year japan
strengthened its border control measures
in response to the global spread of the
omegran variant it was an essential
public health step to delay the variance
entry into the country
this allowed us to fortify a healthcare
system and promote vaccinations i hope
that it is not too boastful to say that
japan's response to covert 19 has been
one of the most successful in the world
we have now eased border control
measures significantly with the next
easing taking place in june when japan
will introduce a smoother entry process
similar to that of other g7 members
anyway on that note actually the
government has finally announced on
friday that it would double its daily
limit on foreign arrivals starting june
the 1st chief cabinet secretary matsuno
at a news conference said that about 80
percent of travelers from around the
world which would make up most countries
would not be required to provide proof
of negative covert tests nor would they
have to be quarantined on arrival
including travelers from all g7 member
countries we believe the review will
make the entry of visitors move he said
countries will actually be put in three
categories depending on the assessed
virus risk however the list of countries
by category was not yet available as of
the recording of this update but i will
share on twitter or as a community post
once it is travelers from the lowest
risk blue group will need a
pre-departure negative test result but
will be exempt from testing upon arrival
in japan and will not need to quarantine
at home those coming from a yellow group
country will need to be tested upon
arrival and stay for three days at home
or at a quarantine facility but
travelers who have received their third
vaccine dose will be exempt from this
and travelers arriving from a red group
country will be asked to take covert 19
tests when they enter japan and stay for
three days at quarantine facilities
matsuno said that the experience gained
in these trials would be used later in
decisions to further reopen and when
asked about tourism he simply said that
preparations are underway team
50 people entering for so-called tourism
is indeed very disappointing but it does
give me some hope to think that japan
could have actually opened in may
but they've chosen to open in june
perhaps we will indeed hear some further
positive news in the coming month we
will have to wait and see and although
japan's doubling of daily entry to 20
000 people is in my opinion a lost
opportunity for completely removing the
entry cup with this easing comes some
very positive opportunities this
doubling of entry will mean that those
still waiting to enter for non-tourist
reasons will hopefully enter sooner
therefore relieving a backlog of people
in the month of june
paving the way for a less hectic entry
of future tourism and doubling inbound
capacity will also help to ramp up
procedures at airports and iron out
japan's new free tier entry system team
it's also incredibly positive to know
that japan has introduced a system that
will welcome those without a vaccine too
regardless of the vaccination status of
the entrance or the retainees on arrival
tests home quarantine and other measures
are not required it doesn't get more
official than that this will open up
japan to a larger group of people once
tourism does restart and it was
certainly a precursor that was needed to
be implemented before tourism restarted
and here it is additionally the japanese
government has also changed its stance
on the wearing of masks saying that
wearing them when outdoors is not always
necessary provided that people are not
talking another important factor that
was needed before tourism restarted in
my opinion i do feel that the next step
should be the complete removal of the
entry cap and although i did start off
thinking that this might not be the most
positive update it turns out that in
retrospect there are many small factors
at play
things that in my opinion are needed to
happen before japan reopens perhaps it's
not a lost cause after all what are your
thoughts on this team
are all these small steps finally going
to lead to tourism reopening in the next
two months or so
let me know in the comment section i
look forward to reading what you have to
say the european union commission has
provided an analysis of the measures
taken by japan and south korea a report
by schengen visa info.com says that the
eu is emphasizing that all countries on
the eu visa free list waive their visa
requirements for citizens of the eu
member states and that this is something
that remains a fundamental principle of
the eu visa policy the report goes on to
say that diplomatic efforts have not yet
led to a full change in policy in japan
which continues to have restrictions for
all travelling from the eu only allowing
entry for essential purposes meaning
that eu citizens still are not permitted
to enter japan for tourism the
commission considers that progress can
be better achieved through continued
engagement and diplomatic context and
that at this stage it would not be
appropriate to adopt suspension measures
for any categories of nationals of japan
the commission highlights in addition it
was also noted that the eu will step up
its diplomatic engagement with the
authorities of japan in order to lift
the non-essential travel ban for eu
travelers and restore full visa waiver
reciprocity ahead of travel
normalization it is positive to note
that at the 28 eu japan summit that was
held on may the 12th both sides have
said that they would continue to work to
restore visa waiver reciprocity with the
situation being monitored by the eu
which will take appropriate action
depending on developments whoa team
perhaps this is the best pressure that
japan can get
it sounds to me that the eu isn't
exactly happy that things are not
reciprocal when it comes to travel
japanese tourists can enter freely yet
european union citizens cannot travel to
japan it will indeed be interesting to
see if the eu does indeed take
appropriate action and how this would
look if japan does not change its
policies soon it would however be useful
to know if the eu has set any kind of
deadline for change for this to happen
and this does make me wonder whether
other countries are putting any kind of
pressure for reciprocity to be restored
too what are your votes on this team
will it make a difference ok i was a
little bit reluctant to include this
next story as i was originally only
going off one news outlet in recent days
there have been some stories regarding
road maps which seem to be based mostly
on speculation to be honest and not
necessarily backed up by facts and
although some of the information from
some of the articles can be accurate we
must be careful that it does not mask
inaccuracies and speculation therefore i
would like to make it very clear that
this next bit of information is by no
means official but rather a jata road
map i just wanted to mention it as i am
keeping close eye on many road maps that
have come to light but will not report
until i feel confident in the news so to
summarize on may the 17th the japan
travel agency association or jata
updated its roadmap for the resumption
of travel in the new roadmap jetta
predicts that travel will resume in
stages from june
and that normality will likely resume
sometime after september so to sum it up
nothing is clear at the moment and we
will still have to wait for upcoming
announcements
so team
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appreciation too so that's all for now
thank you so much for sticking with me
through this journey stay positive team
but cover negative till next time i'll
continue researching and keeping an eye
on all updates until the next video so
till then
gracias
thank you and
bye
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