ainternational

PLEASE SEE THE WIKI ABOVE FOR THE LATEST UPDATES FOR THOSE SEEKING ENTRY INTO JAPAN DURING AND AFTER COVID-19

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Anyone else enjoying the sudden lack of mainlander tourists in Tokyo, which has been very noticeable this weekend in Ginza, Shinjuku and Shibuya, especially in department stores. Nice to have a little bit of peace and quiet for a change and more Japanese etiquette than that which tourists bring in - and I don’t limit that to Chinese, but all tourists!

Reminds me of Tokyo 10 years ago. I miss this. Too bad it won’t last.

Have you noticed any changes relative to the pandemic?

gengar

Was in Ginza several days last week and didn't notice a difference, to be honest. As per usual I heard more mainland Chinese than Japanese being spoken.

My understanding is that only group tours have been stopped.

rustykettel

I was talking to a friend who lives in Tokyo and asked about the sold out mask situation. He said it seemed like normal numbers, but later after noticing that it did seem like a lot more people were wearing masks than usual.

ainternational

Am here in central Ginza now. Often work in this area so I have been seeing it daily. My observations:

- More folks wearing masks overall. Almost half. White people still tend not to. Lol
- Indeed still plenty of Chinese, but less and less crowded. Not by 75%, maybe 25%. Department stores are more noticeable. Outside GINZA also more noticeable (ex: Isetan Shinjuku yesterday).
- Group tours account for almost all of the Chinese tourists in places like Ginza according to my local travel agent, but no clue if he has accurate data.

No matter what, from what I read online (lol), the virus will peak fairly soon and all this will be over. Let’s see if that’s indeed true...

FlitBen

If the contagion does abate as assumed, mainlanders may well be back in force later in the year. It would be nice if CCP leaders follow the more pessimistic scenarios for longer...

ainternational

Later this year? I’m thinking later this month unfortunately.

Visconti

Count me as another who would much rather enjoy Tokyo with less...er...tourist group activity.

AlwaysAisle

I do think coronavirus will have economical impact in Tokyo especially in tourist industry. Chinese visitors has become major part of tourist industry in Japan, not just in Tokyo. I think effect will be short term, which will end way before Tokyo Olympics. Hotels, tour companies, bus companies, all are reporting in the media that they are experiencing cancellation from China.

When bubble economy busted and ended in Japan around 1990-1991 many Japanese stopped patronize upper scale shopping such as department stores, and Japanese has not returned to shopping at Department store since. After bubble economy ended in Japan department stores recovered due to Chinese visitors, not because of Japanese returning to upper scale shopping such as department stores.

I do think effect of coronavirus will be short term, not entire year, but I do think there will be effect on economy.

FlitBen

I plan to visit late spring, hopefully.

it is probably for the best that you must go and soon. The news can only worsen before trends improve.


From what I've heard, many locals would heartily agree.

evergrn

So far, as far as I know, zero restrictions on flights between China and Jpn, outside of Hubei province.
JAL and ANA still operating all China flights other than Wuhan, with no announcement as of yet to suspend/reduce any services.

What is Jpn thinking? What do they know that other countries (and their carriers) taking much more proactive measures do not know?
Or are they just unable to be decisive as per usual?

This situation could dissipate sooner than many fear. That's what we all hope. On the other hand, there are many features of this virus that are so atypical and potentially scary and there're so many things we don't know yet (not the least of which is accurate info from Chinese government). So there's also the potential that this could turn out to be a bad long-term situation.

evergrn

As of morning of 3 Feb (2 Feb in USA):

Australia:
- NO arriving flights from China allowed.
- Qantas: Suspends all flights to/from China.

US:
- AA/DL/UA: all flights to China suspended.
- Advisory to avoid travels to China

Singapore:
- SQ: All flights to China suspended.

Korea:
- Korean Air: On 31 Jan, announced extension of Wuhan flight suspension through 27 March, announced reduction of China flights by roughly 50%.

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Japan:
No restrictions applicable to China except for Hubei province. No announcement by NH/JL to reduce/suspend services to rest of China as of yet. Only restrictions by NH/JL at this time are suspension of Wuhan flights through Feb.

LAXlocal

But who will decide that the corona virus is controled and its time to drop these restrictions ?

Japan wants to keep a Happy Face for the Summer Olympics , I hope that works and the Games are not effective

shuigao

A few days ago the government announced that all non-residents who've been to mainland China in the last 14 days aren't allowed entry or transit.

Not entirely sure how they'll completely enforce this though,

evergrn

wanting to keep a happy face might just be one of the reasons Jpn can’t pull the trigger on restrictions similar to those of US and others. But that’s a really dumb reason. As someone from the US government said, there’s a lot of unknowns right now and it’s much better to overreact than to underreact. Why Jpn can’t see it that way is beyond me.

hkskyline

I wonder if all this will subside by the Olympics. In the worst case, the China team won't come and that'll be a huge chunk of participation gone.