Japan Travel Advice & Safety | Smartraveller It also will see the opening of the TIAD luxury hotel in the buzzy Sakae/Shin-Sakae entertainment districts, after the opening of the art deco hotel The Tower Hotel Nagoya (2020) on the upper levels of Nagoyas TV tower, with the large beams of the tower as a centrepiece within each room. Spending another night in Okinawa for the 55th stay of my ongoing 87-day adventure across Japan, I absent-mindedly typed the letter J into my web browser, only to have this article come up as the first suggestion. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon. Thanks for all the updates and helpful info during this stressful and hard time, Tom!! Japan also began allowing unguided tours, meaning ones not accompanied by tour conductors. These leaks came after Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara spoke on Fuji TV over the weekend and stated thatJapan will consider easing all three restrictionsthe daily arrival cap, ban on individual tourists, and visa requirements. Prior to those guidelines being released, we speculated on how this would work given basic logic and past precedent with prior groups who had been allowed to enter Japan. Will be heading back again in a couple of weeks. Just booked my accommodation/flights/insurance/rail pass for a 22 day trip to Hiroshima, Fukui, Kanazawa, Nagoya and Osaka! You all made the (repeated) cancellations and premature excitement a bit more bearable. Your updates were by far the best I could find on the internet and helped lots of us getting through this (dare I say; emotional) rollercoaster the past several years. Yes, Japan's borders are now open to all international tourist travel.. Japan has completely removed the entry cap on daily foreign arrivals.. Additionally, all visa exemptions have now been reinstated.This means that citizens of around 70 countries, including the United States and all European Union nations, can once again visit Japan for 90 days without a visa . However, as we have seen time and time again, the patently obvious conclusion often is not the outcome reached by Japan. Japansreclassification of COVID-19 to Class 5 came after a panel of experts under the health ministry agreed on the plan earlier in the day. Of . Grab your passport: Japan is once again open to the world Its another symbolic measure, and coming at a time when an increasing number of international visitors have already moved on to other destinations and pent-up demand has begun fizzling out. Under the current COVID-19 border restrictions, foreign tourists need to obtain a short-term visa and prepare their flights, itinerary, accommodation, and car rentals ahead of time through a. Japan to ease COVID border controls like G-7 states in June: Kishida Sheesh! Sep 12, 2022 SHARE The government is planning to allow independent tourists to come to Japan and exempt them from visas if they have been vaccinated three times or submit a pre-arrival test. js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; More likely, the impact wont be fully felt until next years cherry blossom season. In today's Face-to-Face interview, Professor Wolfgang Arlt, founder and CEO of the China Outbound . (February 2023 Update). May 18 - Japan is Reopening for Tourism to 4 Countries on May-end On Tuesday, May 17, government officials announced that Japan will accept some tourists from the U.S., Australia, Thailand, and Singapore on a trial basis starting at the end of this month. WHO urges countries to keep borders open as world races to contain Covid variant. The specifics are not consistent among outlets, so lets start with where theyre in agreeance. Japan Disaster Updates and Travel Alerts - Latest news on events Sign up here to get the latest news, updates and special offers delivered directly to your inbox. Its thus our view that Japan reopening in some capacity to individual tourists in October is a very realistic scenario. Japan Is Open For Tourism And Had Over 200K Visitors In September . May its borders remain open forevermore. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. I came to your page because this comments section and its provisional community provided something both unique and welcome in a dark time for travellers of Japan. Japan is a highly attractive country not only for tourism, but also for international conferences and incentive travel. The new Trunk Hotel Yoyogi Park opens here with a rooftop infinity pool and views over the park, in 2023. Can I Travel to Japan Now? 2023 - Travel Daily. Statements by politicians and medical advisors, gradual border relaxation measures, and other changes could be interpreted as Japan laying thegroundwork for a resumption of normalcy and the countrys eventual reopening. Thanks, [] to individual tourists for the duration of the festivities. For more than two years, the nation was effectively impossible visit Japan. Copyright - Sarah & Tom Bricker, Travel Caffeine. Come see the new Japan. Human behavior and sentiment dont change overnight, even if its economically advantageous and objectively safer to do so. Economic benefits of international tourists is one big reason why Japan is expected to reopen its border. Cant wait! Thanks to everyone in here in the comments for that! Japan will close its borders to all foreigners from Tuesday, . The prime minister, Fumio Kishida, said on Thursday that the. Zenbo Seinei A new meditation experience centre above the canopies of the Hyogo prefecture next to Kyoto and Osaka, designed by award-winning architect Shigeru Ban. Im very glad its dead but am also appreciative of what existed while it did. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers. Due to this and other policies, Japan has lagged behind economically, seeing slower recovery than the United States and other counterparts that have more aggressively reopened. 2023 when Japan is scheduled to downgrade the categorization of the virus. Japan To Open Borders From June 10 To Aid Hobbled Tourism Industry: Report The country is also bringing back visa-free entry for visitors from more than 60 countries. Japan to reinstate ban on foreign visitors, G7 to meet over new Covid While the daily number of arrivals was higher pre-closure, we assumed that 50,000 is the level at which this cap becomes immaterial with China still sidelined. Japan has eased travel restrictions, but will tourism bounce back Beloved for its unique mix of vibrant urban culture and natural beauty, the country is lifting its tight regulations on foreign tourists, according to a tweet Thursday from Taro Kono, Japan's . Do I need to be vaccinated to enter Japan? The country is also about to increase the daily cap of tourists allowed to enter Japan from 20,000 to 50,000. Can I Travel To Japan? Requirements and Travel Restrictions [March 2023] Subscribers also receive a totally free copy of ourJapan on a BudgeteBook. Given that none of the recent reports have even mentioned COVIDs status in regard to reopening, its possible our perspective was wrong. It will happen soon. From the beginning this page was the only place I checked (sometimes daily) for hope. Were preserving this for posterity, but everything that follows is now (thankfully!) Thats a wild card that could further extend any timeline. Updated on Oct 29, 2021 01:32 PM IST While other Asian countries are inching toward reopening, Japan's borders will likely remain shut for some time to come. Japan's Reopening & Entry Requirements for Tourists - Boutique Japan Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has reacted with powerful . Saturday, 4 March 2023, 15:47 Last update: about 1 hour ago. For now, direct flights from China can only land at the Narita, Haneda, Kansai and Chubu airports. Updated 7 June 2022. The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals. People attending the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2023, sing the national anthem during the opening session, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, March 2, 2023. Not A Hotel Ishigaki Opening on the island of Ishigaki in 2023, this Sou Fujimoto set of luxury sea-view villas have the unique property of being raised as if from the ground, with meadows for rooftops, a sleek futuristic design reminiscent of his designs at the recent Shiroiya Hotel in Gunma. Except for everyone wearing masks, things seemed mostly back to normal. Visit Japan Web App also let me pre fill out for immigration and customs, and just use the QR codes for those as well. According to data from the Japan Tourism Agency, stays athotels and other accommodation facilities hit another record low in Japan last yearbreaking the previous record set in 2020. TEL: 0120-248-668 (Japanese only) . The Japanese government recently eased its COVID-19 entry restrictions, meaning tourists can now visit without being on a guided tour. With the yen weak, tourism has the potential to provide an . If youre planning your trip to Japan, what do you think about these itineraries? Is Japan open to travelers? Some locals not ready to reopen borders - CNBC That may soon change. Economists fear a double dip recession in Japan due to the prolonged closures and restrictions. In short, the early October reopening is not just our most optimistic viewits now what we expect to happen. This is now the same as the best-case scenario. Japan Tourism: The decision means Japan will allow in a limited number of foreign tourists on package tours starting June 10. Japan has been busy over the past two-and-a-half years with preparations to welcome back everyone. The government will also take measures to stimulate and jump-start the economy. The national border is under the management of central government, Koike said. The good news is that we now have an answer to questionsweve been asking for nearly two years! Japan has maintained some of the strictest From the early days of Covid-19, our team of Japan travel experts has been closely monitoring developments and in constant contact with our network throughout the country. Up to 20 per cent of these arrivals will also be required to take a COVID-19 test on arrival at the airport. Japan to increase daily border cap to 5,000 people from Nov 26 COVID-19 Information - U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Japan Essentially, there will be no (legal) basis for the current border protocol effective May 8, 2023. It aint over till its over.pls see my recent post which I HOPE isnt accurate and just some fake news, but Reuters is pretty accurate. Multiple media outlets, including NHK, Kyodo, Nikkei, and Fuji TV are all reporting thatJapansgovernment is planning to further relax restrictions and border measures with an eye to implementing the revisions by the start of October. Japan's islands call as nation reopens to tourists - New York Post Cases are currently in freefall and will continue decreasing next month before bottoming out sometime between late October and early November. At that time, it was unclear whether unguided tourists would be allowed to enter. Reopening to individual tourists in October presents minimal (political) risk and maximum (economic) upside. It thus stands to reason that opening to individual tourists necessarily needs to occurthat raising the entry cap will do nothing in furtherance of their stated goal. Japan will open an embassy in Malta - The Malta Independent Toranomon-Azabudai- A futuristic development project by Heatherwick opening in 2023 in the well-heeled area of south-west Tokyo by the same name, the Toranomon-Azabudai Project will foreground. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. We can't expect Japanese government to reopen their border on April 2022 due to the emergence of Omicron variant. We eagerly await your arrival!. Ill be sticking around for the future updates and travel guides. Japan has vilified and scapegoated foreigners and had an overly aggressive approach to its borders. Japan's Tentative Border Reopening Likely to Have Limited Impact Lets say that happens in early November. During the Bloomberg New Voices panel,Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said she would open the countrys doors tomorrow if it were her decision. Boosting tourism was core to the late former Prime Minister Abes economic revitalization, and both subsequent prime ministers have indicated their intentions to maintain continuity with those plans. Ill never forget this amazing, special blog and the unlikely community of shared pain that flourished here for as long as I live. 23/02/2023. Well keep watching the news and keep you posted if/when there are further developments about Japan reopening and allowing entry to travelers from the United States, Canada, Europe, and beyond. This is a necessary prerequisite for further reopening and the resumption of more inbound international flights, but this alone was not an obstacle dissuading most international visitors. It remains unknown when independent travelers will be able to enter the. Its made it slightly more bearable having a community to discuss all the news coming out of Japan especially since group tours first became a reality. Nov. 18, 2021 10:20 am JST Nov. 26, 2021 . Do I need to do a pre-departure Covid test? New Zealand, Japan and Samoa set to reopen to visitors | CNN For general inquiries about border measures for entry into Japan, please contact the following numbers Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's Call Center Open 9 AM to 9 PM, everyday including weekend and holidays. This is something weve pointed out in our best and worst case scenarios in prior updates, but theres only a limited amount of time between waves. Yet despite the wealth of praises I have for Tom, this article and its two-year community, I am so, so glad, perhaps gladder than ever now, that compulsively opening this link in my browser is no longer part of my daily routine. 7:09. Yokohama 2023 sees the return of the Yokohama Biennale art festival, timed with the reopening of the Yokohama Museum of Art post-renovation. js.src = "//forms.aweber.com/form/28/412454028.js"; Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reportedly plans to make a decision as early as the end of this week, according to the news outlets sources. One wildcard is the downgrade of COVIDs legal status. Kiyomizu-dera Temple with cherries in full bloom: f11 photo / Shutterstock.com Situation Summary Not so much in the last couple of years, as this has been reflected in policy-making. Did the Visit Japan Web App before arrival and was simple getting through everything at Narita, just had to show them the QR codes, two people traveling, one with the triple vaccination and one just using pre travel PCR test. Both of these statements are reassuring given the current border closures, and indicate that Japan will unwind its travel ban in months, not years. By contrast,Fuji TV is treating this as a done deal, using less ambiguous language. Moreover, how this played out with Japans last announcement is also instructive. While there are still some covid-related protocols in place, it's likely that the entire pandemic-era regime of border measures will be done away with my some point in 2023. . Japan is now allowing foreign nationals to enter Japan for purposes other than tourism so long as they have a sponsor in the country. Want to receive free updates on when Japan will reopen for travel? P.s. Are borders open as normal in 2023? Required fields are marked *, Free Money-Saving eBook & Japan Email Updates, https://www.travelcaffeine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/mount-fuji-sunrise-field-autumn-foliage-japan-bricker.jpg, https://www.travelcaffeine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/travel-caffeine-new-logo-2.jpg, Is Japan Open to Tourists? Mon 10 Oct 2022 23.22 EDT Last modified on Tue 11 Oct 2022 07.34 EDT Japan has fully opened its doors to visitors after more than two years of pandemic isolation. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government launched a multilingual call center on COVID-19 for foreign residents. Finally booked my flights, enjoy your trips everyone! However, the number of foreign visitors to Japan dropped to 245,900 last year, the lowest since 1964, as the country enforced tighter border controls. If you cant respect another countrys Covid policies you shouldnt visit and be an entitled tourist. The short version is that it is possible to enter, regardless of whether youre vaccinated or unvaccinated, albeit with a testing requirement for the latter. Ive been following since the very beginning and only started actually posting at the very end, but I want you to know how grateful I am that your blog existed as truly the gold standard for Japan-related travel blogs throughout the pandemic. despite protests. Finally, Japan will reopen the border. The political and economic appetite for fully relaxation now clearly exists, and theres a vocal chorus of politicians in Japanincluding those who were previously in favor of closed borderschampioning reopening. Japan border reopening: One of Australia's favourite destinations opens Please subscribe to our FREE email newsletterand stay tuned if you are curious about how things are on-the-ground for tourists in Japan post-reopening. By. China retaliated by suspending the issuing of short-term visas in South Korea and Japan. Were excited about this great (but overdue) news, but also go in knowing that things will be different, in ways both good and bad. JNTO President SEINO Satoshi commented: The Japanese government has, at last, announced the resumption of individual travel for tourism purposes, visa waivers, and the elimination of the daily arrival cap. This indicates that Japan is finally ready to move forward and sets the precedent for future changes during waves. 2023 GPlusMedia Inc. national Japan to increase daily border cap to 5,000 people from Nov 26. Thats simply a good time to visit Japan and, hopefully, the country will be open to individual tourists by then. These are questions among those planning trips to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and this covers the answers. Koike said that Japans borders would fully reopen soon. Recently, Japan reopened to limited numbers of fully vaccinated foreign business travelers and students, and raised its daily limit of these arrivals from 3500 to 5000. The resumption of individual travel to Japan and visa waivers, and the elimination of the daily arrival cap will allow international visitors to enjoy Japan in more ways than in the past two-and-a-half years. TOKYO, Japan - Japan plans to ease COVID 19-related border restrictions by lifting its entry ban for foreign nationals from 106 countries including the United States, Britain and France on . First, after reopening to guided tour groups, Japan reopened to individual tourists on October 11 of last year. Shimokitazawa An ongoing redevelopment around a suburban railway line stretching across three stations (Senrogai), cementing the districts place as a youth culture hub. On October 11, Japan will finally open its doors to independent travel following more than two years of some of the world's toughest border restrictions. In such a scenario, the borders could almost immediately return to their normal pre-closure status in early October. In terms of the latest news, the current vaccine and testing policies are likely to end on May 8, 2023. A guide to visiting Japan in 2022/23 - Lonely Planet (It took a few more days for the guidelines to be released, and the clarifying FAQ isstillbeing updated. We were wrongthe unguided tours offered two steps forward but one step backwards. And thank you for providing this space for all of us. The Government of Japan announced a policy of resuming entry by individual travellers for tourism purposes beginning on October 11. The big one for most of you is likely going to beJapan Face Mask Rules v. Reality in 2023. TOKYO, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Japan will from Wednesday ease its COVID restrictions on travellers from China, dropping a requirement that everyone take a test for the virus upon arrival, its top government spokesperson said. Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile. if (d.getElementById(id)) return; To differentiate the two, Ill also allow for a middle ground possibility of a bifurcated decision with the individual tourist reopening a few weeks after the entry cap elimination. 2022 Reopening Borders Japan Tourists | Japan City Tour Ive started to see on JP twitter people asking for No mask in Japan too, so the sentiment is shifting even there. Its now the popular position being advanced publicly by politicians, not just being advocated by Keidanren or Japans business lobby. (With the possible workaround of travel insurance or some other awkward fix.). As governor of Tokyo, that would be tomorrow.. Speaking of which, check out ourJapan Fall Colors Forecast & Autumn Foliage Viewing Guideto get started on planning your trip to visit Japans popular fall foliage cities, including Kyoto, Tokyo, Mount Fuji, Miyajima, Hiroshima, Himeji, and Nara. Take a dip in one at the soon-to-open, . Any questions? Autumn is already a lost cause. Its pretty clear the government is focused on moving forward. Thank you so much for this free and respectful space for everyones opinions that has helped us get through these difficult years. Japan opening borders 2022 for tourists. Kihara isnt the only one who has been vocal about fully reopening to tourists recently. Visiting Japan in 2023 - Japan Forum - Tripadvisor obsolete information. This is a major policy shift and will relaxif not eliminate entirelyJapans intensive COVID-19 countermeasures, including limiting the movements of infected people and their close contacts. I wish you all the best with your upcoming tripsthanks again for everything. Why You Should Visit Japan in 2023and Where to Go 2 days agoJapan on Monday reported 95916 new coronavirus cases. I already moved on to read your other Japan travel posts to get tips which are also so helpful! Toranomon-Azabudai A futuristic development project by Heatherwick opening in 2023 in the well-heeled area of south-west Tokyo by the same name, the Toranomon-Azabudai Project will foreground green spaces, a new temple, retail spaces designed by Sou Fujimoto, Japans tallest high-rise building, two Aman properties and the new permanent location for teamLab exhibitions in Tokyo from 2023. This is the first step in our gradual easing of the [border] restrictions, Kishida has said. Thanks to so many of you regular readers and commenters who made the last couple of years easier, shared articles, optimistic/pessimistic updates, and so much more. How to Travel to Japan in 2022 as a Tourist | Tokyo Weekender Are you concerned that Japan wont reopen until 2023, or think October is still realistic? Any thoughts or tips of your own to add? And indeed, there was nothing today, either, or even this year so far because at last the Japan we loved, the Japan that rejected us against sense, science and reason, has finally provided a sensible, responsible option for people like us to enter the country, which was all we ever asked for in the first place. We are eager to revisit our favorite places, see friends in Japan for the first time in over two years, and continue creating this sites wealth of free planning resources. Thanks for the posts, Tom. China reopening most likely late Jan/Feb 2023. The recent lockdowns in Shanghai and Guangdong are unmistakable signs that China will not be backing down from its zero-Covid policy, at least for the rest of 2022. Regardless, its good to have this removed as it eliminates an element of uncertainty and could have been an issue during peak travel times for the Japanese. oh wow!! Finally, there has been some good news about the state of the Japanese border closure for almost all tourists.