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Coronavirus impact in Japan [consolidated]

Old Mar 5, 2020, 5:17 pm
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Last edit by: CPH-Flyer
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 Aug 29, 2022, 11:31 am
  #10006  
 
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New Level of Anxiety Reached - Booking a Guided Tour with 10 days before flight departs.... Aaaasghhhdghfdhdfighki.

I don't recommend it.
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Old Aug 29, 2022, 1:08 pm
  #10007  
 
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Originally Posted by Kishiwada
New Level of Anxiety Reached - Booking a Guided Tour with 10 days before flight departs.... Aaaasghhhdghfdhdfighki.

I don't recommend it.
Exactly what I will not be putting myself thru.But I understand it if you are going home to visit family etc. It is certainly not worth it for a vacation. This is beyond absurd.
LETTERBOY likes this.
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Old Aug 29, 2022, 1:20 pm
  #10008  
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Originally Posted by Denis Carlin
Why do you want to go to a country where the entire population is racist and xenophobic?
The same comment could be made about my home country USA. But let's keep this thread out of omni.
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Old Aug 29, 2022, 1:57 pm
  #10009  
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Originally Posted by evergrn
A layover alone would be worth it if NRT or HND had a decent lineup of airside restos and shops like HKG and even TPE.

I think Jpn is the only country Ive been to where most airports concentrate all dining/retail landside, which is esp too bad under these pandemic circumstances.
I also find this very frustrating.
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Old Aug 29, 2022, 2:04 pm
  #10010  
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Originally Posted by invalyd
The entire population is racist now? All 125 million of them?

Meanwhile, you are still here every day posting in a thread specifically about said country.
Lol this made me laugh.

Its human nature to want to be surrounded by like minded and like looking people. Such believes I think are coded into our biology to some degree but rules of modern society help mitigate these primal instincts and we call out blatant racism (as we should) as being morally wrong.

That said, I think there are patriots / loyalists / racists in every country including the US and Japan of course. But having lived in both countries, I do feel like there is a stronger xenophobic vibe to the Japanese BUT they hide it better than the average American. That said its not EVERYONE, there are super friendly kind and open Japanese and Americans as well and super racist ones too. Such is the variety of life.

Back on the COVID topic, I did feel initially like there was this us vs them foreigner vs Japanese vibe around Covid in the early days, whereby the gaijin are bringing Covid here but even then I felt it was more about the Chinese than westerners. Nowadays I think the average Japanese citizen either doesnt care or perhaps acknowledges that Japanese are more likely to bring Covid home from abroad if only because of the sheer percentage of Japanese citizens entering the country via foreigners in the last year.

Overall in my decade in Japan, it does feel like things are getting better and more friendly overall. Feels that way in America too, even more extreme where we have pretty open borders for immigration even these days to some degree.

Speaking in all or nothing terms is rarely correct about any large population. There are good and bad people all over the world and most of us are good at times and bad at times too. Such is life.
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Old Aug 29, 2022, 2:06 pm
  #10011  
 
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To be clear, I was making a joke about others' posts, my point is that these massive childish generalisations are ridiculous.
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Old Aug 29, 2022, 4:31 pm
  #10012  
 
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Originally Posted by Tilto007
Exactly what I will not be putting myself thru.But I understand it if you are going home to visit family etc. It is certainly not worth it for a vacation. This is beyond absurd.
Lol, yep. I am 100% stressed out, but I'm doing it because this trip is going to be something special for someone very dear to me. And I need a vacation, dern it!
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Old Aug 29, 2022, 6:15 pm
  #10013  
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This thread has been permanently closed. For Q&A and discussion of Japan-related COVID travel restrictions, please see the Impact of COVID on Travel to/from Japan (2022) thread.

Regards,
armagebedar
Japan forum moderator

Last edited by armagebedar; Sep 4, 2022 at 2:51 am
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