I really appreciate hearing the perspective of folks that are on the ground in Japan and it really does help to listen to you folks instead of the various travel bloggers/influencers who insist that Japan reopened yesterday. As a regular traveller to Japan pre-pandemic, I have been wanting to return but even if Japan reopened to the casual visitor tomorrow, I'd much rather others go first and deal with the inevitable bureaucratic hoops that will be placed before visitors. Not that it's a like-for-like replacement for Japan but I've elected to travel to South Korea this fall instead of waiting for Japan to reopen.

That being said, scouring the excellent AeroRoutes shows that a decent amount of airlines are restarting routes to Japan in the fall/winter. I'm just wondering who exactly is going to be flying on these flights as my personal feeling is that the country will not truly reopen until 2024. I mean, Taipei to Hakodate five times a week while the borders are for all intents and purposes closed?