Banning travel to Japan brings grief to tourists, businesses | Corona virus epidemic

Cassie Lord, a freelance writer living in Tsukuba, Japan, plans to spend Christmas in his hometown in the UK. She had not been home for nearly three years and was hoping to find another relative who had undergone heart surgery recently.

Now plans are being thwarted after Tokyo reintroduces border control following the release of the Omicron coronavirus.

“When Japan stopped allowing visitors and students, I became worried,” says Lord. “I do not know if [the government] abruptly end these changes, or make them worse … I do not want to cling to the UK. “

Since the World Health Organization has called Omicron a “concern”, countries around the world have asked for a way out. But as in recent times, the Japanese are among the most difficult and difficult people.

Starting Monday, everything not living in other countries is banned, changing the ease of restrictions for business travelers and foreign students within weeks of their establishment.

Officials also briefly banned the reservation of all incoming flights before making a U-turn Thursday due to concerns that could prevent Japanese citizens from returning home. Legal isolation is extended to 14 days for returning residents, regardless of whether they are vaccinated.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida described the ban as “temporary, special measures we are taking for security purposes until the Omicron diversity is clear.”

The critical response has been praised by some experts as being very interesting to Kishida since taking office, which gives guidance to the new leader among voters who are not sure he can lead.

But some see Japan coming back to Sakoku’s ideology – reflecting the idea of ​​nationalism between the 17th and 19th centuries. While some G7 countries lifted sanctions throughout the year 2021 in the wake of the vaccine boom, Japan maintained its borders despite losing less than 19,000 COVID-19 and vaccinating more than 75 percent of the population.

Limitations in the early stages of the virus have been criticized for discriminating against foreigners, with several cases involving officials claiming – directly or indirectly – the spread of the disease to non-citizens.

Itako Health Center in Ibaraki Prefecture came to prominence among outsiders earlier this year when it sent out a letter urging people to be aware that there are “too many patients with COVID who may have been diagnosed from strangers”.

Last year, Taro Aso, a former prime minister, made headlines when he praised the Japanese people’s attitudes, or culture, for overcoming the first epidemic of the virus.

Japan’s border control has raised concerns for foreigners and businesses throughout the epidemic.

“Obvious results [of the controls] and that foreign and domestic companies alike will not be able to bring in the right people, “Michael Mroczek, head of the European Business Council of Japan, told Al Jazeera.

“This means that the responsibilities cannot be filled or that senior executives will oversee the company outside of Japan.”

Davide Rossi, co-founder of the Go! Go! Nihon, told Al Jazeera that the mental health problem was too big for international students hoping to study in Japan.

“I regularly receive messages from students who have lost two years of their lives due to the ban,” Rossi said. They fail to reimburse their tuition fees or lost time, and they are often frustrated and have no tuition fees elsewhere.

‘It is politically impossible’

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for “reasonable” measures to combat the mutation, in which some scientists fear that it could infect or prevent vaccination more easily than in other cases, but criticized travel restrictions.

Asked about a recent ban in Japan at a press conference on Wednesday, Michael Ryan, director general of WHO’s Health Emergency Program, said it was “difficult to understand” according to science.

“Does the virus read your passport?” Ryan said. “Does the virus know your country or where you live legally?”

Stephen Nagy, a friend of mine who visited the Japan Institute of International Affairs think-tank, told Al Jazeera that he believed the restrictions were “sensible” until more was known about the differences.

But he acknowledged that Tokyo’s reluctance to reopen was heightened by the lack of exposure to the virus.

“With COVID prices very low at the moment, it seems politically impossible for us to take a border control approach for fear of publishing this new product,” he said.

For people like Tania Sofia, a Portuguese-born Portuguese woman who is looking forward to entering Japan with her Japanese boyfriend, uncertainty is a constant source of frustration.

The current law stipulates that only those with valid entry permits can travel to Japan, whereas the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ website “is not known for visas”, Al Jazeera told.

“[Once married] “My goal is to get a long-term visa from the Japanese embassy in London, so I can take him back to Japan in January,” Sofia said. “But with this new ban, I don’t know if it will affect visas.