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 traveller,
you’ve come to the right place! So, join team Ninja monkey if you haven’t already
and make sure the 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 be looking at the covid situation that’s led to a state of
emergency, the Olympics and continue giving you an easy to follow recap of how the vaccination
program is progressing. We will also explore some very important Certificate of eligibility changes
and look into other interesting travel related news and as always 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 regard to covid cases in Japan.
Covid positive cases have slowly been increasing nationwide,
but with the eyes of the world on Tokyo and the upcoming Olympics
and the fact that out of for example 2239 cases reported Nationwide on one day, 822 were in Tokyo
(out of the 8950 PCR tests done on that day) This shows how things are starting to escalate.
Always remember 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.
In comparison, last week, for example we saw
1811 cases on one day across the whole country with 600 being from Tokyo. That’s
428 additional cases nationwide and 222 additional cases in Tokyo alone.
"The number of infected cases in the area including Tokyo has been increasing since the end
of last month," said Suga, speaking at the start of the government's Covid-19 task force meeting.
"The number of severe cases and bed occupancy rate continues to be
on the low level, but considering the impact of variants, we need to enhance
countermeasures so that the infection will not spread nationwide," added Suga.
The fact that the more infectious Delta variant now accounts for 30%
of cases across Japan has added to the reasons for a new state of emergency being announced
and in effect from July 12 to August 22. This will be Japan’s 4th State of emergency with the
last state of emergency only been lifted on the 20th of June, just a few weeks ago
Previously, some rules stated that venues serving food and beverages must close early and refrain
from serving alcohol at all times and Events would be allowed to be held with spectators again, but
capped at 5,000 attendees or 50 percent of venue capacity. However, it appears that these Olympics
will be spectatorless, with all fans banned from Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama venues.
And already some establishments are planning on breaking the rules.
Japan's "Kill Bill" restaurant operator said on Friday
he will defy restrictions and open as normal despite a government suggestion
that businesses that break the rules could face new financial penalties.
"We will continue our ordinary operations all through this new state of emergency
with alcoholic beverages served," Hasegawa said in a message to Reuters.
What are your thoughts on this Team? Do you think establishments should follow government
guidelines? How do you feel about businesses that break these rules? Do you feel they are
only trying to survive in these already difficult times or do you think they are being reckless?
I’d love to know your opinion on this one, so lets get a conversation started in the comment section!
I always love reading what you have to say about the content and the video in general.
I try to respond to as many as I can and love getting to know you a little better,
so even if you just say hello and where you are from I’d really appreciate it!
And if you really want to help this channel out, how about sharing thisvideo with
like-minded people on twitter or facebook groups? That would really help me out.
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 9th July, there have now been a total 57,350,224 vaccinations administered.
To better understand this figure, I will break it down further:
36,053,625 Make up people who have only had one dose and
21,296,599 make up those who have received both jabs and would therefore be fully inoculated.
Therefore, out of the population of around 126 million people:
28.40% have now received one dose of the vaccine and 16.80% are fully inoculated with both doses.
Due to the way that these stats are now being reported by the Japanese government,
I have had to change the way I break down the information,
but I think it is actually a clearer way of seeing the bigger picture.
It is obvious that the vaccination drive is holding steady with over a million daily doses
being administered, however, we will have to wait and see if this can be sustained as
there are reports of logistical issues with bottle necks and even wasted vaccinations
The issue appears to be a misallocation of shots, with too many doses going to
places where demand is low, while others run out. Vaccine minister Taro Kono said
Friday some locations have been going “extremely fast” and should “optimize” their speed.
I will continue to keep you all informed in regards of how things progress in this area!
So.. A lot of you have been asking regarding the certificate of Eligibility (CoE).
Many of you were nervous about your CoE expiring soon
and whether or not you’d need to apply for a new one or if it would be extended. As you may already
know (if you have been following my community posts) Japan has decided to extend the CoE.
But firstly, for veiwers who might not have a clue of what we are talking about.
What is a CoE or Certificate of Eligibility?
It is an official document issued by the Ministry of Justice that you have to get before you can
apply for a long-term Japan Visa, such as a Work Visa , Student Visa , or Marriage Visa .
However, it is the Immigration Services in Japan who issue Certificates of Eligibility,
so you need a sponsor or proxy in Japan to handle the application on your behalf.
Therefore, the Certificate of Eligibility for Japan is not the same as a visa;
it is merely a document that facilitates getting a visa.
So, the good news is that people who have already received a CoE dated anytime
after 1st January 2020, will have the document extended until 31st January 2022.
Additionally any future issued CoE’s will have 6 month validity instead of the standard 3 months.
My personal thoughts on this is, that the office that issues CoE is just trying to streamline
things and we shouldn’t really read too much into these dates, as the office that issues
CoE certificates and the department that decides on opening the borders are completely separate.
This is just a way to make it easier once the border has reopened,
in essence taking away an extra step of reapplying for a certificate that you already have.
The only additional step in converting your CoE into a visa
will be an additional letter from your sponsor or institution, which will need
to be presented within three months of arrival in Japan along with your certificate of eligibility.
I continue to suggest that you keep an open dialogue with your study institutes or sponsors,
and now that this information has come to light,
as soon as it seems that Japan will reopen contact them directly.
In other Travel related news,
For those of you who have been following my content for a while,
the topic of vaccine passports has come up various times. In my last update regarding
this matter it seems that Japan intends on issues vaccine documentation so that
Japanese citizens can prove inoculation status when travelling abroad but Japan
would not be accepting vaccine passports for entry into Japan from foregners.
However, according to a report in Nikkei Asia, Japan’s largest Foreign business lobby
is starting to place pressure saying that Japan needs to ensure mutual recognition of its planned
COVID-19 vaccine certificate, which would allow foreigners who have received their shots abroad
to enter the country without restrictions. To be honest I think that the fact that a state
of emergency has been announced and the Olympics are only two weeks away, it is unlikely that there
will be much movement in this area. I do believe that the government has a lot in their hands and
once we see back of the Olympics things might change. What are your thoughts team?
And for todays last travel related story.
As you are probably already aware. Currently, only Japanese nationals, foreigner residents,
people related to the Olympics and those with granted approval due to
"special exceptional circumstances" are allowed entry into the country.
And those who can enter Japan are currently required to make
a pledge to self-isolate for 14 days after entering the country,
and some Travelers from certain countries asked to stay in hotels or other accommodation for
several days and take further tests as part of their 14-day quarantine.
It seems that this quarantine rule has been frequently violated. The government even
previously said that up to 300 people per day, who had pledged to self-isolate upon arrival in Japan,
could not be confirmed in their quarantine locations or were to be found some distance away.
Therefore it seems that the Japanese government has come up with a scheme that will ask
duty-free stores to check the date of entry to Japan in customers' passports and report if
they were shopping in violation of the required 14-day quarantine period.
What do you think team? Did you make use of duty free when visiting Japan?
If so what for and was it worth it? I’d love to know your thoughts
So if you are still watching thanks so much 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 Noble Truth asks:
Do you think the new state of emergency in Tokyo will severely affect opening by fall?
I don’t personally think we should be reading too much into the state of emergency right now
but we should certainly keep an eye on things. So therefore its really difficult to say. I try
to only inform people of what’s happening so that they can make informed decisions.
I do however hope that after the Olympics and in this case the state of emergency,
things will become clearer. I do feel that this state of emergency is partly precautionary
but at the same time needed. My recommendation is always to make sure that any tickets you book are
refundable or flexible. I continue to be hopeful that things will open up before the end of the
year and I think we should pay special attention to how students and business people are treated
first. As I do think the will have entry before normal tourists and will be a big sign of when
things might open up for average visitors. So that I hope I was more or less able to
answer your question, sorry if I havn’t been able to give you a concrete answer,
but I am sure that with all the information I give you, you can make your own decisions.
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.
As always, lets 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!