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Coronavirus impact in Japan [consolidated]

Old Mar 5, 2020, 5:17 pm
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This thread is for discussion of the coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic as it relates to Japan. Non-Japan-related discussion should be taken either to the most relevant forum, the Coronavirus and Travel forum, or the OMNI forums.

UPDATE FOR TOURISTS LOOKING TO VISIT JAPAN AFTER COVID-19 BORDER RESTRICTIONS EASE
Japan does currently not allow entry for general tourism purposes. Most visa waivers are suspended, and travel to Japan for non resident foreigners generally require a visa. And quarantine as described for the countries and territories below.

UPDATE FOR PEOPLE WITH VISAS THAT ALLOW ENTRY INTO JAPAN
The quarantine requirements mentioned below will generally apply to entrants in Japan. As the conditions of who can obtain a visa for entry on exceptional circumstances are not clearly listed anywhere, it is necessary to confirm entry requirements with your local Japanese diplomatic representatives

Spouses and children of foreign permanent residents or Japanese nationals, can obtain visas for short term stays (up to 90 days) by applying in person or by mail at an overseas Japanese consulate. Required documentation includes application form, letter with reason for purpose of visit, bank statement and Koseki Tohon. Processing times have been reported as on the spot to up to one week.

From March 1st, business travelers, students and technical trainees can again enter Japan. There is a need to have a receiving organisation to apply for the visa. For business travelers, there will be one point of contact with the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare. Though the full details are not published yet (as of typing on the 27th of February, please add them if you have seen them)

Business travelers must have a Japanese company or organization apply for a Certificate for Completion of Registration to the MHLW ERFS system. This is a two step process. The company must first register and then apply for the Certificate for the traveler. These can both be done online and completed in less than an hour.The website for doing this is https://entry.hco.mhlw.go.jp/.

After getting the certificate the traveler must apply for visa at the Japanese Consulate or Embassy with jurisdiction for where they reside. (They are quite strict about this. E.g. you can't apply while traveling in a foreign country.) The information on the Consulate pages state that you need Letter of Guarantee, Invitation Letter, etc when applying for the visa. In fact, however, if you have the EFRS certificate, all you need is the visa application, your passport and a photo. The Consulate will issue the visa within 5 days.

​​​​​​

UPDATE JAPANESE CITIZENS AND RETURNING FOREIGN JAPAN RESIDENTS

All people travelling to Japan has to present a negative PCR test taking no earlier than. 72 hours before departure to be able to board the flight. The certificate has to meet the information requirements and test types from the Japanese government.

https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/000799426.pdf

From the 7th of June, passport number, nationality, signature and stamp from the doctor/medical institution are no longer required.
​​​​​
The requirement for pre-departure test will be removed for passengers on flights landing after the 7th of September 00:00 provided that they have received a full bases vaccination and a booster vaccination. Accepted vaccines are Moderna, Pfizer, Astra, Zeneca, J&J, Novavax, Covaxin.

Uploading documents in advance via the mysos app or via the mysos website is required. For details please see https://www.hco.mhlw.go.jp/en/


The arrival process is as follows. Countries will be grouped in red, yellow, and blue.
  • Group Red:On-arrival test is required. 3-day quarantine at a government-designated facility is required, however, those who obtain a valid vaccination certificate may have 5-day home quarantine (or 3-day home quarantine + negative result of a voluntary test) instead.
  • Group Yellow:On-arrival test and 5-day home quarantine (or 3-day home quarantine + negative result of a voluntary test) are required, however, those who obtain a valid vaccination certificate are not required to have on-arrival test, home quarantine and other measures.
  • Group Blue:Regardless of the vaccination status of the entrants/returnees, on-arrival test, home quarantine and other measures are not required.
Vaccine certificate does require three doses of vaccines.
​​​
Red countries:
Albania, Sierra Leone

Yellow countries:
Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Cook Island, Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominica, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Macau, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Namibia, Nauru, Nicaragua, Niger, Niue, North Korea, North Macedonia, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Portugal, Republic of Burundi, Republic of Congo, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Republic of Vanuatu, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Solomon, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Ukraine, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vatican, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zimbabwe

Blue countries:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentine, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote dlvoire, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyz, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, Western Sahara, Zambia



For updates to the lists of countries and territories and changes to the rules check the website of the ministry of foreign affairs https://www.mofa.go.jp/ca/fna/page4e_001053.html and ask in the thread for clarifications and experiences of entering Japan.
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Coronavirus impact in Japan [consolidated]

Old Feb 13, 2020, 6:51 am
  #76  
 
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Originally Posted by hailstorm
Your information is old; it's more than that.
Not old; my mistake was that I subtracted the wrong numbers based on a Japanese news article as I mistranslated/misunderstood that 11 of the new cases on board the quarantined cruise vessel were not Japanese nationals. I've edited my original post.

According to various news sources within the last 10 hours, it's either 30 or 32. Not sure for the reason for the discrepancy. In any case, I'm not going to get worried about it until it really gets exponential. I'd still be far more worried about Singapore where virtually all the determined clusters have unknown / unverified transmission.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 7:06 am
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Originally Posted by gengar
According to various news sources within the last 10 hours, it's either 30 or 32. Not sure for the reason for the discrepancy. In any case, I'm not going to get worried about it until it really gets exponential. I'd still be far more worried about Singapore where virtually all the determined clusters have unknown / unverified transmission.
I suggest you get some updates in a couple of days' time about the situation in Japan. Until yesterday, due to very strict criteria that needed to be met for testing, there were cases with strong suspicions remaining untested. That's just changed, and more cases are being found with unknown route of infection.
I suspect the picture may look quite different (although I do hope not) in a couple of days' time.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 7:44 am
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Originally Posted by LTN Phobia
I suggest you get some updates in a couple of days' time about the situation in Japan. Until yesterday, due to very strict criteria that needed to be met for testing, there were cases with strong suspicions remaining untested. That's just changed, and more cases are being found with unknown route of infection.
I suspect the picture may look quite different (although I do hope not) in a couple of days' time.
Today there a Taxi driver that got this sickness so I bit scary as the driver would be closed car, close contact with others. The other big news is the first death in Japan from this Wuhan Sickness tonight,
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 8:25 am
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Originally Posted by gengar
Hysteria is never smart.
It is not, but we cannot assume those buying up stuff are all hysterical. A very few might have insightful info from within the quarantine zone, like the group I'm with. Others may have decided to not rely on official predictions, which may prove to be the wiser path.

Only 1 in 19 people who might have the coronavirus are being diagnosed in Wuhan, new research suggests
New estimates of novel coronavirus diagnoses in the Chinese city of Wuhan place the number of infected people far higher than 19,558, the current case count from the Chinese government. -

- As foreign nationals in China have evacuated and returned to their home countries, many governments have imposed quarantines. The Imperial College researchers based their analysis on passengers who had left China and returned to Japan and Germany on four flights from January 29 to February 1. All were tested for the coronavirus, and 10 infections were found among the 750 passengers. According to the paper, that suggests a "detectable infection prevalence of 1.3%."

The researchers estimated that given the exponential rate of the coronavirus' spread, 220 out of every 100,000 Wuhan residents would get the virus on January 31 alone. Since Wuhan has 11 million residents, that means 24,000 new cases on that day. The researchers compared that number to the 1,242 reported and confirmed new cases in Wuhan on February 3 and found a 19-fold under-reporting rate.

That calculation assumes there is a 14-day window in which a patient's coronavirus infection will yield a positive test. The team also ran the numbers based on the assumption that a patient has only a seven-day period of detectable infection. In that scenario, Wuhan would have 300 new cases per every 100,000 residents on January 31. In total, that's 33,000 new cases in the city that day — 26 times the official number on February 3. -
The news was always going to worsen. Now, it seems that things may be far worse than the Chinese can yet determine and/or have let us on.

One problem is that the statistics can only account for the cohorts of subjects that have managed to get tested and were reported, so far. If case counts are bifurcating between care units and morgues/crematoriums, that complicates trend analyses.

Last edited by FlitBen; Feb 13, 2020 at 11:34 pm
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 8:28 am
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Originally Posted by Taipei
Today there a Taxi driver that got this sickness so I bit scary as the driver would be closed car, close contact with others. The other big news is the first death in Japan from this Wuhan Sickness tonight,
It is actually at least 2 taxi drivers as of this morning.I suspect the true numbers in Japan are far higher than what is being reported now.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 2:39 pm
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After a lot of thought I canceled a March trip to Tokyo today. The news seems to be worse every day, and I did not want to worry about this the entire time I was there and then for 2 weeks afterwards. Just not worth it to me.

The approaching Olympics adds a real twist here -- on one hand they obviously have every incentive to deal with this promptly and effectively as possible, but it also means they have every incentive to downplay the true situation if indeed it gets worse or is already worse than reported.

Just too many unknown unknowns for my taste.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 3:00 pm
  #82  
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Originally Posted by KevinDTW
After a lot of thought I canceled a March trip to Tokyo today. The news seems to be worse every day, and I did not want to worry about this the entire time I was there and then for 2 weeks afterwards. Just not worth it to me.

The approaching Olympics adds a real twist here -- on one hand they obviously have every incentive to deal with this promptly and effectively as possible, but it also means they have every incentive to downplay the true situation if indeed it gets worse or is already worse than reported.

Just too many unknown unknowns for my taste.
A week ago I would have called that overkill. Now...I can't say that that's not the right call.

Maybe the best hope for the Olympics is that this quickly becomes a worldwide pandemic, so every place is already pretty much the same anyway.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 3:12 pm
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Originally Posted by hailstorm
A week ago I would have called that overkill.
That's how I felt right up until this morning. And it may still prove to be so, but for a nonessential pleasure trip I didn't want to spend the next 6 weeks thinking about it.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 5:51 pm
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https://mainichi.jp/english/articles...0m/0na/013000c

Some details on the quarantine officer who contracted Coronavirus and the government & hospitals' preparations/challenges to deal with further cases.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 5:54 pm
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Last night we'd decided we're going.

I posted in another thread that we'd decided we're going this weekend.
Then apparently a lot happened overnight (US time)... woman being diagnosed posthumously, new cases due to community transmission, young infected person developing symptoms.
Now we're having second thoughts. It's a lot of money to eat if we cancel, I'm sure the risk is still extremely low, and it'd be major bummer to cancel this vacation. But I don't like where things seem to be trending.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 6:16 pm
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Originally Posted by evergrn
Last night we'd decided we're going.

I posted in another thread that we'd decided we're going this weekend.
Then apparently a lot happened overnight (US time)... woman being diagnosed posthumously, new cases due to community transmission, young infected person developing symptoms.
Now we're having second thoughts. It's a lot of money to eat if we cancel, I'm sure the risk is still extremely low, and it'd be major bummer to cancel this vacation. But I don't like where things seem to be trending.
Would suggest you bring a supply of face masks for the trip. The locals are quite good at covering up (for the most part) if they have a cough or sneeze, but you can also do your part to protect yourself / minimize transmission.

Face masks are pretty much all out across Japan.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 7:22 pm
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Originally Posted by hkskyline
Would suggest you bring a supply of face masks for the trip. The locals are quite good at covering up (for the most part) if they have a cough or sneeze, but you can also do your part to protect yourself / minimize transmission.
If you wear glasses with a mask, then you'll need some anti-fogging spray, particularly when you're out in the cold.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 8:07 pm
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"Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Sugaand health minister Katsunobu Kato said there was no evidence the new coronavirus, was spreading widely in Japan."

Yes, as long as you don't test people, there won't be evidence that the disease is spreading in Japan...
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 8:21 pm
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Originally Posted by LTN Phobia
I suggest you get some updates in a couple of days' time about the situation in Japan. Until yesterday, due to very strict criteria that needed to be met for testing, there were cases with strong suspicions remaining untested. That's just changed, and more cases are being found with unknown route of infection.
I suspect the picture may look quite different (although I do hope not) in a couple of days' time.
Originally Posted by evergrn
Now we're having second thoughts. It's a lot of money to eat if we cancel, I'm sure the risk is still extremely low, and it'd be major bummer to cancel this vacation. But I don't like where things seem to be trending.
Honestly, the bigger complication chance for travelers IMO is governmental restrictions on travel or freedom to move, which would be particularly troublesome while already on the trip. I have a few upcoming trips to Taiwan/Japan and my main concern is potential travel restrictions that might go into effect while traveling. Ironically, Japan will probably be at lower risk for this given their apparent need to appease China / the global community esp. in advance of Tokyo 2020 (as KevinDTW noted) and perhaps their cultural inclination to ignore things and hope they go away, but it should still be a major concern for travelers who are transiting other countries (e.g., Taiwan) where pax may also be banned from transiting should things get considerably worse in the country of departure.

In Taiwan and other countries with aggressive mandatory quarantine programs, I'd worry about being quarantined due to coming into contact (or even the government's perception of coming into contact) with a potential infected person and possibly getting stuck there for 14 days and having to rearrange flights, make new hotel plans, and figure out the work situation. There could also be complications returning to the home country, either with mandatory quarantine or even an outright ban (although not likely in the USA for citizens).

To be abundantly clear, I'm not at all downplaying the risk from coronavirus itself, especially for those with different circumstances (e.g., traveling with elderly / infants / those more susceptible to complications); I just think a lot of the concerns expressed are premature.

As a last resort, you can decide not to go now and wait as long as possible before actually canceling and hope that there might be a travel waiver at some point, even if unlikely.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 8:50 pm
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Originally Posted by gengar
Honestly, the bigger complication chance for travelers IMO is governmental restrictions on travel or freedom to move, which would be particularly troublesome while already on the trip. I have a few upcoming trips to Taiwan/Japan and my main concern is potential travel restrictions that might go into effect while traveling. Ironically, Japan will probably be at lower risk for this given their apparent need to appease China / the global community esp. in advance of Tokyo 2020 (as KevinDTW noted) and perhaps their cultural inclination to ignore things and hope they go away, but it should still be a major concern for travelers who are transiting other countries (e.g., Taiwan) where pax may also be banned from transiting should things get considerably worse in the country of departure.

In Taiwan and other countries with aggressive mandatory quarantine programs, I'd worry about being quarantined due to coming into contact (or even the government's perception of coming into contact) with a potential infected person and possibly getting stuck there for 14 days and having to rearrange flights, make new hotel plans, and figure out the work situation. There could also be complications returning to the home country, either with mandatory quarantine or even an outright ban (although not likely in the USA for citizens).

To be abundantly clear, I'm not at all downplaying the risk from coronavirus itself, especially for those with different circumstances (e.g., traveling with elderly / infants / those more susceptible to complications); I just think a lot of the concerns expressed are premature.

As a last resort, you can decide not to go now and wait as long as possible before actually canceling and hope that there might be a travel waiver at some point, even if unlikely.

​​​​​​I consider myself an informed human and not that much of a risk taker. I still plan on heading to Japan for a long-planned 12 day trip unless I see something from the WHO or other authority very different than what I've seen thus far. To be blunt, if the outbreak in Japan were as bad as some are speculating, youd have seen a wider outbreak in the US and Europe now, as flights have continued to go in and out of the country.

Obviously it's a personal comfort choice, and I am very much keeping an eye on the situation, but it doesn't seem like canceling trips more than a month out would be merited.

My mother, on the other hand, is convinced I'm going to be stuck in Japan with no way back for eternity.
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