WHEN IS JAPAN OPENING..?
That is the big question and nobody seems to have a definitive answer. The government is remaining tight lipped on the border status and has not set an open date.
To give you an idea of the present situation, Covid rates are high at the moment as we are in the midst of the 7th Wave. In the past, the government has imposed a ‘State of Emergency’ during previous waves and asked people not to travel. The 7th Wave has been different. The country has just had their summer holidays and Japanese made the most of unrestricted travel since the pandemic began. Festivals that had been on hiatus for the last few years were now being held again.
This is a forward step to bring Japan in line with the rest of the world in its Covid response domestically.
The 7th Wave has placed a burden on the health system, with some regions reporting available beds in hospitals for Covid patients were reaching the limit. Covid is classified as an infectious disease and it is mostly only public hospitals that can manage this level of virus. With this in mind, it is difficult to see the government opening the borders fully at the moment, but we are hopeful that this will change after the present wave and at least before this coming winter.
reclassification of covid
Japanese health experts have been urging the government to reclassify Covid to the equivalent level of the seasonal flu. This in turn would ease the burden on public hospitals and prevent the healthcare system from being overwhelmed, opening up more hospitals and even general clinics to treat Covid patients.
Reclassifying Covid would have wider developments socially and economically, signaling to the Japanese people that life is returning to normal. This would hopefully initiate the government to then take further steps of opening up the country to general tourism, thereby easing some of the burden on an economy that has languished the past few years.
Latest
- In a televised speech, Prime Minister Kishida has said that the government will move ahead with reform as quickly as possible to reclassify Covid.
- Japan is considering dropping the requirement to take a PCR test 72 hours prior to travel to Japan. This would signal
a major easing of restrictions.
- Japan will lift the cap on entry numbers from 20,000 to 50,000.
In the next blog we look at who is allowed into the country presently and what the conditions are.
chuck olbery
Chuck Olbery is the director of Hokkaido Powder Guides and is a qualified ski guide with the New Zealand Mountain Guides Association. Before coming to Hokkaido he worked in Canada and New Zealand in the heli-skiing industry. Chuck started Hokkaido Powder Guides seventeen years ago after a search around Japan’s mountainous regions for the best location for guided ski trips. "Choosing Hokkaido was easy as it has some of the best quality snow in the world."
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"On some days though, when the wind is blowing in a north easterly direction, you may catch the faint smell of sulphur in the air. This would be from Mt Tokachi, which is a smoking volcano at the southern end of the park. During the deep winter months of January and February, the mountains of the national park are often not fully visible. But on clear days, from Furano you are able to see the whole range extending north sixty kilometres, and the faint outline of smoke rising up from Mt Tokachi, the source of the sulphur"
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