bobf

Apparently as of June 10 Americans and others can enter Japan but only as part of an organized tour. Assuming no travel agency organizes a "tour" for HND-NRT, I guess such transits remain impossible for Americans for the foreseeable future? I've booked a sweet Business class JFK-CGK-JFK, but the only way to make the dates work involved a 25 hour HND-NRT.

Thanks

dvs7310

Not only Americans if that makes you feel any better. It's the same for every country until the elections are over in July. The ruling party can't risk the votes from the geriatrics who control the country. (basically young people don't vote here, much to the determent of the country and some of our ridiculous policies). They'll happily complain but won't take the time to try to vote out the ruling party. The average person who actually votes doesn't want foreigners back (ever basically), so even though the government knows and acknowledges it's a necessity, they have to pacify the voters with the controlled and confined tour groups for the time being and can't rock the boat now.

I'd expect a fairly open border policy again by August or September, but absolutely no widescale reopening will happen before the election, nor an announcement of one to avoid upsetting the voters. So basically if your flight is before August, then you need to rebook it to transit the same airport. As of now JL alternates days between NRT and HND on a lot of the US flights to give people the ability to connect to cities that only operate from one airport or the other. You may have to check around with schedules, but JL flies to JFK, ORD, BOS, DFW, SFO, LAX, SAN, and SEA, most likely you can get a matching airport for your dates without having to rely on HND to NRT being allowed again.

bobf

Interesting analysis. My flight was late August, but I certainly didn't want to wait and see if it was viable. So thanks for the prompt warning. I cancelled within the 24 hour window. As you suggested there were many possible alternate routings, but google flights was only showing a few of them. AA showed many more. All the ones on my first choice of dates showed the "Oops, one or more of your flights is no longer available" when I tried to book on AA, so I guess the NRT-CGK leg was gone on Aug 29. In any event, we are booked JFK-CGK-JFK in J on my second choice of dates for about $2700 each. Now I guess I will enter the "how do you reserve seats on JAL" issue.

jiburi

Interesting analysis. I won't argue on this point, but when Japanese passport entry is restricted for entry to other countries, I'd think this policy would change instantly. Currently, Japanese passport is tied with Singapore, to be considered the strongest passport in the world with access to 192 countries. When such status change, something will happen.

Let's close the border to Japan due to........current moderate level of covid cases.....
Jiburi

dvs7310

It's actually on the table with the EU sometime in August and I'm going to laugh my a## off if this stubborn government actually allows it to happen. Apparently the EU has a reciprocity rule on visa free entry with a 2 year compliance deadline. From what I've heard this kicks in in August or September because Germany filed the objection in one of those months in 2020. From what I understand if that kicks in then Japanese passport holders will have to get visas for a minimum of 12 months while this government either decides to comply or lives with a visa policy.

We need a few more shocks in the system to get the local population into an uproar about the current policies. The (current) voters aren't the ones who travel overseas, so maybe it's the tipping point we really need to instigate change. It started after Golden Week when a lot of people actually did travel overseas and were subjected to the absurd arrivals process we had until May 31st, hence the sudden removal of arrival tests this week. Need to make more Japanese citizens feel some pain to get things pushed faster.

Korea apparently is still requiring visas for Japanese citizens. There was a run on the embassy in Tokyo this past week when visa issuance opened up, while the rest of the world has been able to travel to Korea fairly freely for the past month. That's a tit for tat move that I applaud them for. If / when the other countries in the region start doing the same thing then there will be an immense amount of pressure to open sooner than later. The people who used to travel abroad during holidays are definitely tired of being couped up here.

CPH-Flyer

The European commission in their May 17th statement seems less on the war path than all that....

dvs7310

That's very disappointing, some country / union with enough clout is going to have to push hard to get something done fast on this side.

CPH-Flyer

Looking at the history of the EU actually putting this mechanism in to action... I would not hold my breath.

There is a caveat that the wider diplomatic considerations can/will take precedent.