Not since 1853, when U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry forced Japan to open its borders to trade, has a reopening been so newsworthy. This time, instead of Black Ships, the country faced a trickle of tourists looking to hit up Kyoto and indulge in their pop culture obsessions.

Ahead of the reopening on Oct. 11, the Japanese people asked themselves what to do if the new arrivals didn’t wear masks, would this event precede a new wave of COVID-19, and will long-dormant sectors of the economy finally get a boost? Kanako Takahara joins us on this episode to explain the new guidelines for coming to Japan, and Will Fee talks about what he saw at Haneda Airport on opening day and what the legacy of the closed-border policy might be for foreign residents.

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Kanako Takahara: Articles | Twitter

Will Fee: Articles | Twitter

Shaun McKenna: Articles | Twitter

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Transcript:

Note: Deep Dive is made to be listened to, and we recommend this transcript be used as an accompaniment to the episode. This transcript has been generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcription, and may contain errors. Please check its accuracy against the episode.

Shaun McKenna  00:09  

Welcome to Deep Dive from The Japan Times, I’m Shaun McKenna. 

As of last Tuesday, tourism is back! Well, to an extent. After closing its borders in April of 2020 due to the pandemic, Japan has now reopened to independent travelers, much to the delight of those in the business sector. 

But don't expect an economic windfall anytime soon. High-spending Chinese shoppers, who made up 37% of inbound tourists to Japan in 2019, may be slow to return due to a “COVID zero” policy in their own country that curbs travel overseas. 

Still, those coming in from other countries are free to do so without special visas once again, and airlines, hotels and restaurants are all hoping this can help their businesses rebound in 2023. 

Later on in the show, we'll speak more about the impact the border closure has had with Japan Times staff writer Will Fee. But first, to understand the ins and outs of the current situation, we'll talk to Japan Times news chief Kanako Takahara about the border, where Japan stands right now with regard to COVID-19 and whether the appearance of a new strain of the coronavirus could possibly close the borders once again.

Shaun McKenna  01:31  

Kanako Takahara, welcome back to Deep Dive.

Kanako Takahara  01:34  

Thanks, Shaun. Glad to be back.

Shaun McKenna  01:36  

Now, the last time you were on this podcast was in May and you were speculating on the borders fully opening at that time, but they didn't. What happened?

Kanako Takahara  01:46  

So the government has been allowing small groups of people in, and there were, like, arrival caps (on them that were) gradually increasing. It went from 5,000 to 10,000 and, finally, 50,000 in the summer. And in June, the government experimented with allowing guided tours to come to Japan, but that wasn't so popular. People didn't want to have guided tours to go around touring Japan; they just wanted to freely visit where they want to go.

Shaun McKenna  02:21  

Some people actually compared it to North Korea. 

Kanako Takahara  02:23  

Really?! 

Shaun McKenna 02:24

Yeah. 

Kanako Takahara 02:26

And from September, they didn't have to have guided tours but they had to book through travel agencies for accommodation. That was also, like, kind of weird. And then last week, that cap has been completely done away with.

Shaun McKenna  02:42  

OK, so what are the requirements for getting into Japan now?

Kanako Takahara  02:45  

So you have to be vaccinated with three shots: That's two vaccinations of the initial round and also a booster shot. So if you don't have that proof of vaccination, then you need to submit a pre-departure or pre-arrival PCR testing, that you need to take within 72 hours before you fly into Japan.  Also, you still need to download the MySOS app, which basically smooths this process a bit for entry.

Shaun McKenna  03:18  

Now, some readers on The Japan Times website were asking if these rules applied to children under 5. Do you know if they are exempt? And, has been there any mention about needing the fourth shot, which is a second booster?

Kanako Takahara  03:30  

So, if the child is traveling with the parent, and the child is under 18 years old, they will be treated the same as the parent or the guardian traveling with the child. So if the parent has been vaccinated with three shots and can submit that proof of vaccination to the government, then the child will be treated the same. So the child doesn't need to submit PCR testing. But if the parent is not vaccinated with three shots, then the child will still need to do the PCR testing 72 hours prior to coming to Japan. 

Shaun McKenna  04:11  

Gotcha. And what about the fourth shot? 

Kanako Takahara  04:13  

So there's no requirement as of now to get a fourth shot to come to Japan.

Shaun McKenna  04:20  

OK. So with the borders open and tourists coming back, can we say that COVID is over?

Kanako Takahara  04:26  

No, not by a long shot.

Shaun McKenna  04:28  

So where does Japan stand with regard to the coronavirus then?

Kanako Takahara  04:33  

Well, Japan got hit pretty hard by the BA5 omicron subvariant this summer, but total deaths still sit under 46,000, and more than 80% of the country has received at least two vaccinations, and more than 65% have received the booster. And the fourth shot, another booster, is being rolled out now. Also, the Japanese are still using hand sanitizer before they enter shops, and they're still masking.

Shaun McKenna  05:02  

OK, so the masking culture has actually led to a discussion over what to do if an overseas tourist, say, refuses to wear a mask at a hotel, right? But it's not illegal for people to refuse to wear masks in Japan. Is that right? 

Kanako Takahara  05:17  

No, it isn't. I mean, but, Japanese people, Japanese society, puts a lot of priority on social etiquette and cohesion. So a lot of people still wear masks in public transportation, buses, trains…

Shaun McKenna 05:31

On the streets. 

Kanako Takahara 05:32

On the streets, yeah. So in hotels, there is a new bill that allows hotels to refuse accommodation for people who don't adhere to antivirus rules.

Shaun McKenna  05:45  

OK, so like if they say they don't want to wear the mask, or they don't want to get their body temperature checked, for example.

Kanako Takahara  05:51  

Right, right, right. That's going to be deliberated in the Diet this season, yeah. 

Shaun McKenna  05:56  

OK, but I've seen a lot of Japanese people in cafes and restaurants, kind of not wearing their masks indoors, and those are places where you're more likely to catch COVID-19 instead of, say, like a park or outside. And even in the summer, the government sent out a flyer kind of, like, reminding people to take off their masks when they're, like, bicycling or jogging, because they were worried that those people would have heat stroke and then clog up the hospitals.

Kanako Takahara  06:26  

Right, that's true. So, restaurants, they will still have a lot of plastic partitions, for instance, and the air ventilation is a better, improved version. And you have, like, open windows, open doors, maybe.

Shaun McKenna 06:40

Right, even in winter.

Kanako Takahara 06:41

Right. But I've seen some people take off their masks outdoors. I do my morning jogs at the riverside and a lot of people have taken off masks. So that's what I'm seeing, a little bit of a shift from the really strict kind of masking to a little bit going towards taking off their masks, maybe.

Shaun McKenna  07:03  

So I guess Japan is like any other country, right? Like, there's people in Japan who are going to be very paranoid about masking, and then there's going to be people who've completely rebelled against it.

Kanako Takahara  07:14  

But the best advice for tourists is: When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Shaun McKenna  07:18  

Is there a Japanese version of that saying?

Kanako Takahara  07:21  

I think it's 郷にいれば、郷に従え (gō ni ireba, gō ni shitagae).

Shaun McKenna 07:24

OK, what does that mean? 

Kanako Takahara 07:25

So, when you enter a village, then adhere to that village’s customs.

Shaun McKenna  07:30  

Good advice. So final question: If a new strain of the Coronavirus were to suddenly appear, would the government be likely to close the borders again?

Kanako Takahara  07:39  

Well, the new strains pop up every now and then. So, if there's a strain that's more infectious and that causes more severe symptoms, then, yes, Japan may probably close its borders again.

Shaun McKenna  07:54  

So I guess anything can happen when you think about it. So it's always just best to be aware of what's going on?

Kanako Takahara  08:00  

Right, but the government definitely wants to rebound the tourism sector. Prime Minister (Fumio) Kishida has been saying that the government wants foreign tourists to spend more than ¥5 trillion in a year.

Shaun McKenna  08:15  

Right, OK. Foreign tourists spent ¥4.8 trillion in 2019, before the pandemic, right?

Kanako Takahara  08:22  

Right, right, right. But that was including the Chinese tourists that went on like the big shopping sprees in Japan, but they're not coming back anytime soon so, the big spending, that could be a little bit down the road.

Shaun McKenna  08:39  

OK, but the main kind of message here is that the government is not going to try to close the borders again. They do…

Kanako Takahara  08:46  

They definitely want the tourism sector to rebound. 

Shaun McKenna  08:51  

Gotcha. Kanako Takahara, thanks very much for coming back on Deep Dive.

Kanako Takahara  08:55  

Thanks, Shaun.

Will Fee (at Haneda Airport)  09:07  

How do you feel about the borders opening? 

Tourist 09:09

I'm excited, yeah. 

Will Fee 09:10

Oh, yeah? How long have you been waiting to come to Japan?

Tourist 09:12

Since, we're supposed to come for the Olympics in 2020 and we couldn’t. 

Will Fee 09:16

So, waiting all that time.

Shaun McKenna  09:17  

What you're hearing there are the sounds of tourists arriving at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on the first day that Japan fully opened borders to travelers from overseas. Those clips were captured by Japan Times reporter Will Fee, who is with me now to tell us more about our grand reopening. And it's his first time on Deep Dive, Will, welcome!

Will Fee 09:35

Cheers, Shaun, thanks for having me. 

Shaun McKenna 09:37

Will, can you describe to us what you saw last week at Haneda Airport, maybe in just three words?

Will Fee  09:42  

Sure, um, for me at least it was quiet, subdued, maybe a bit underwhelming, which are all a bit the same but that's how I found it.

Shaun McKenna  09:50  

What were you expecting going in?

Will Fee  09:51  

I had no real idea what to expect. Some news outlets in Japan have reported that it was really busy, so it could have just been a matter of what flights were or weren't coming in when I arrived. When I was there, though, there weren't really that many people. It was just me, a cameraman from one of the big TV stations and another couple of reporters there trying to get interviews. For a long time, when I was there, the only people coming through were kind of pairs of mostly Japanese people, and each time someone came through the arrival gates, the cameraman next to me was kind of like, “ahh,” he was waiting for the shot of people coming in from Finland. But, yeah, it really wasn't like that. It was mainly business travelers, actually.

Shaun McKenna  10:32  

OK, could it be that, like, many people overseas just haven't been on the edge of their seat waiting for Japan to reopen? Or is it that the middle of October isn't peak travel season?

Will Fee  10:43  

Yeah, true. And the people who are coming at the moment might be more likely to be coming from South Korea or Taiwan or elsewhere in East Asia. And of course, Chinese residents are still dealing with their own COVID-related travel restrictions.

Shaun McKenna  10:57  

Right, so they can't come in. 

Will Fee  10:59  

Yeah, exactly. I did speak to one arrival, though, an Italian traveler coming via Finland from Copenhagen. He just happened to have a month off work before starting a new job. And when he started searching for flights, he found that Japan was accepting tourists again. So he booked a ticket for the next day, which coincidentally brought him here on the day of the border opening,

Tourist (at Haneda Airport) 11:17  

Actually, at the airport in Copenhagen, they didn't want me to, to, to depart to Helsinki, because they said, “Oh, you need a visa.” And I'm like, “Yeah, technically now I do. But when I land, I will not need a visa, you know?”

Will Fee  11:31  

And that was the kind of person that I thought was going to be coming in on the day.

Shaun McKenna  11:34  

Right, so it's kind of, like, lucky. I have a friend who lives in the Philippines and he told me he bought a ticket as soon as the border announcement took place. But he's gonna come in December to go skiing in Hokkaido. So, do you think that things could get busier over the next few months?

Will Fee  11:50  

Yeah, possibly. I mean, I put out a Twitter shout-out kind of asking people who were coming in in the first couple of weeks to kind of share their experience and any difficulties that they might have had. And the people who did reach out to me to share their stories said that, generally, they were arriving at later dates throughout the next few months, and into the new year, particularly for the start of the ski season. One tourist I spoke to who will arrive over the next few weeks said that just booking a flight was like looking for hen's teeth — that was the phrase that he used — given the scarcity of the flights available and, in some cases, the highly inflated prices.

Shaun McKenna  12:24  

OK, this brings up an interesting question. Do you think it's going to be difficult for those of us living in Japan to maybe book tickets to our own homes this holiday season? Like, are the tourists buying up all the seats?

Will Fee  12:35  

I think that really depends on whether or not you're up for spending a lot of money. There's a whole mix of factors that anyone living in Japan should consider before planning a trip home. 

So first of all, there's the low value of the yen. The yen was trading at approximately ¥105 to the U.S. dollar as recently as February. And ahead of the borders reopening, it hit a 24-year low: ¥146 to the dollar. That's largely due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and it's the dollar that's getting stronger. However, the yen isn't doing too well against the euro or the pound either. 

And the weak currency and the Russia-Ukraine conflict also affects us in the form of inflation. Japan buys a lot of goods from overseas and is having to raise prices here. So people here are seeing their cost of living rise quite considerably. They may not be up for taking that trip to Hawaii in December, for example. 

And then finally, Japan's airports and airlines are kind of out of practice. Do you remember the travel chaos that hit North America and Europe this summer?

Shaun McKenna  13:35  

Yeah, I was actually in Canada, there was a sudden demand in travel and that led to problems because of pandemic furloughs and layoffs. And that led to staffing shortages, which led to canceled flights, long lines, lost luggage.

Will Fee  13:50  

Right. So the airline industry here is set up for a similar situation and we've seen reports that hotels have also been hit with logistical problems. As a result of all this, and I'm no travel expert, but I'm thinking it may be better to lay low in Japan for the holiday season if you're already here. On the upside, our borders are open and the yen is weak. So instead of going home for the holidays, why not get mum and dad to come visit you here instead.

Shaun McKenna  14:14  

Another thing that might entice locals to stay put is this National Travel Discount program. However, we've run stories saying that it was plagued by, and this is a quote, a “confusing mix of policies.” So can you first explain to us a little about what this program is supposed to be?

Will Fee  14:32  

Sure, it’s essentially a government subsidy program aimed at kick-starting the nation's troubled domestic tourism industry, particularly in regions that are a bit more off the beaten track that have really struggled from a lack of tourists — both domestic and international. So, alongside the opening of the country's borders to overseas travelers on Oct. 11, the government also, on the same day, began funding discounts for domestic travel, accommodation and food as well worth up to ¥11,000 per person per day, or about $75, for people residing in Japan. And that's only for a period running until Dec. 20.

Shaun McKenna  15:06  

OK, that sounds like a good deal, but what's actually going on?

Will Fee  15:10  

Yeah, so it's a great deal. But it seems as though everyone has been caught a bit on the backfoot by the government's announcement on Sept. 26, which was just about two weeks before the program launched. And the actual launch date itself came on the day when foreign tourists were finally allowed back in. And so a lot of the travel agencies needed time to adapt to the discounts for individual prefectures. 

So, we had a story in which Miyagi Prefecture, for example, they allow their own residents to take part in the program, even if they just had two COVID vaccinations. But anyone outside of the prefecture coming into Miyagi needs to have had three. So these kind of little regulations and differences between the prefectures, travel agencies need to know about these when planning. 

Similarly, there seems to have been an underestimation, say, of how many people would be looking to make use of the discounts. The Yahoo travel agency for one has already stopped taking bookings in certain prefectures given it has already reached the maximum amount of funding allocated in those areas by the government. Elsewhere, the HIS travel agency mistakenly informed customers they could pre-book discounts before the program began, only to then ask travelers to cancel pre-booked tours and rebook following the start of the program.

Shaun McKenna  16:19  

Yeah, I can see how that would be frustrating. You and Kanako Takahara, who we spoke to earlier, have written a lot about the program. So we'll add links to those articles in the show notes. But it's not just tourists who are itching to get into the country. You wrote a story about couples who were being kept apart because of the border policies, what was keeping them from reuniting.

Will Fee  16:39  

So, yeah, these were people who were in committed relationships but who were not, say, technically married. One would have Japanese citizenship while the other didn't, so they had been kept apart. One of the legacies of this policy is going to be the various iterations that went through after the government initially declared, well, “Japanese only,” essentially, at the start of the pandemic. I think we came to see that the population of Japan is actually a lot more diverse and complicated than is generally believed. First, they needed to change the policy to let foreign residents — tax-paying foreign residents — back into the country. Then it was revisions to allow family members without Japanese citizenship, business travelers, academics, students. So the story I wrote was about these people who were in long-term relationships, maybe even engaged when the pandemic hit, but who had no proof in the way of documents to show the strength and the longevity of their relationship. So, for the past two years, they've had to conduct a long-distance relationship. In some cases, they found a loophole where they could get married over the internet, and that was going to help them get in.

Shaun McKenna  17:42  

So have any of them found a happy ending?

Will Fee  17:45  

Yeah, so of the two couples that I spoke to, one of them figured out that they could get married long-distance early last year. And then after around six months of exchanging documents between their respective embassies and marriage agencies, they're able to get everything sorted, get married and the husband arrived to be with his now wife in September last year. 

Similarly, the other couple I spoke to just got married after 2½ years apart just a couple of months ago. They're still apart but they're going to unite for their honeymoon in Italy later this year. And then they're going to live together again in Japan from early next year.

Shaun McKenna  18:18  

That sounds nice. 

Will Fee  18:19  

Yeah, it’s great. And, of course, they're both heterosexual couples, who had the option, ultimately, to get married in order to be together, which is unfortunately not a course of action that many same-sex couples in the same situation have been able to turn to. And the couples that I spoke to, you know they've been together for years and they each describe the really dark place that they found themselves in mentally being unable to unite with their loved one.

Shaun McKenna  18:45  

Actually, on that, I was speaking to Vicki Skorji of the mental health support organization TELL Japan, and she said, and this is a quote, that “many foreigners who were stuck in Japan during the pandemic felt frustrated because they couldn't return home, and were isolated from their families and essential support systems. On top of that, many were also confused about what support was available to them, particularly with regard to financial assistance, and they struggled to keep up to date with the changing situation in Japan.” 

She also stressed that it was an especially challenging time for foreign students studying here.

Will Fee  19:17  

Absolutely, I think that's accurate. It's been an incredibly isolating period for a lot of people. For newcomers, Japan can be quite difficult to navigate at the best of times, you often receive official documents, tax bills, pension service information, etc., it’s all pretty essential for living and working here but it's all in kanji, the Chinese characters, and not even fairly simple kanji but hard-core chains of kanji that even after years of studying can leave you feeling pretty stumped. So throughout the pandemic, despite the deluge of information that was out there, it was for many overseas residents extremely difficult to access. This was a problem that had been acknowledged officially even prior to the pandemic, and there were attempts, particularly in the build-up to the Olympics, to try to make the most essential information available in at least English if not Mandarin Chinese and Korean, and other, often, Southeast Asian languages like Indonesian and Thai as well. I think that for those foreign residents who stayed in Japan throughout the pandemic, it really hammered home some of the more difficult aspects of being here. For example, Shaun, you were here during the pandemic, so was there any time that you couldn’t, that you felt you couldn't leave because of COVID policies?

Shaun McKenna  20:29  

Yeah, so I don't have permanent residency so, for a while, if I left Japan, I wouldn't be able to get back in. But luckily, I didn't have to leave Japan, though.

Will Fee  20:39  

Yeah, and that's great but, obviously, for some people, they weren't so lucky. And I imagine you, like myself, were thinking at certain points: “What if something happens at home? What if one of my parents or anyone I care about gets sick while I'm here? What do I do?” And the pandemic really made that feeling of distance that bit more oppressive. And I'm sure there were tons of people who simply decided, OK, this is too much, I need to go home. 

And then, I guess, ultimately, I think long term that's actually fairly damaging for Japan and its overseas reputation. And that can be pretty serious for a country that has problems like a rapidly aging population, depopulation in its rural areas and a severe labor shortage — things that will surely necessitate a relaxation of immigration restrictions at some point down the line. If you have a community of non-Japanese people feeling like they've not been necessarily treated considerately, there's the possibility they’ll eventually go home and spread the word that this isn't the place to be.

Shaun McKenna  21:37  

Well, Will Fee, thanks very much for coming on Deep Dive. 

Will Fee 21:40

My pleasure, thanks for having me.

Shaun McKenna 21:48

Thanks again to Kanako Takahara and Will Fee for coming on the show to discuss the reopening of Japan to tourists. We’ll provide links to their coverage on the issue in the show notes. 

Elsewhere in the news, during my chat with Will you'll recall him referencing the slide of the yen. Well, the yen hit a new 32-year low at the end of last week at ¥148.86 to the U.S. dollar. Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda said Saturday that he will stick with a strategy of monetary easing to support the economy. 

And, if you're a tourist coming to Japan, here's something for your itinerary. Culture writer Thu-Huong Ha got a sneak peek of the world's first Studio Ghibli theme park in Aichi Prefecture, and she took tons of photos which can all be viewed at japantimes.co.jp.

Production for today's episode came courtesy of Dave Cortez. Our theme music is by LLLL and our outgoing track, the one you're listening to in the background just now, is by Oscar Boyd. Until next week, podtsukaresama!