Japan’s travel ban is a serious threat to foreigners and businesses Coronavirus virus pandemic

Cassie Lord, a freelance writer living in Tsukuba, Japan, was planning to spend Christmas in her hometown in the UK. He has been homeless for almost three years and has recently had a heart operation with a family member who has undergone heart surgery.

His plans are now in full swing after Tokyo reinstated strict border controls in response to the emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

“When Japan stopped allowing visitors and students, I started to worry,” Lord said. “It simply came to our notice then [the government] it will suddenly cancel the change, or it will suddenly get worse … I don’t want to get stuck in the UK. “

Since the World Health Organization declared Omicron a “variant of concern,” nations around the world have called for strict access protocols. But according to the recent form, the Japanese one is one of the smallest and most serious.

From Monday, everything non-resident foreigners have been banned, reversing the easing of restrictions for business travelers and foreign students, a few weeks after its introduction.

Authorities also briefly banned all bookings of entry flights before turning around on Thursday on suspicion of preventing Japanese citizens from returning home. The mandatory quarantine has been extended to 14 days for returning residents, regardless of vaccination status.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the cuts were “exceptional measures we are taking for security reasons” until more information is available on the Omicron variant.

Some experts have praised Kishida’s strongest move since taking office, giving the new leader a potential boost among voters who are not fully convinced of his leadership ability.

But others see that Japan is retreating in the “Sakoku” way of thinking, the country in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. reflecting the isolationist policy of the centuries. As other G7 nations pushed back restrictions in 2021, as vaccine rates rose, Japan maintained tight control of its borders, suffered fewer than 19,000 COVID-19 deaths, and vaccinated more than 75% of the population.

In the early stages of the virus, border controls were criticized for segregating foreigners, and officials were directly or indirectly accused of infecting non-natives.

The Ibaraki Prefecture Health Center gained popularity among foreign residents earlier this year when it sent a document to the community stating that “there were many patients infected with COVID who were likely to be caught by foreigners.”

Last year, former Prime Minister Taro Aso made headlines when he applauded the “mindo” or cultural values ​​of the Japanese for overcoming the first wave of the virus.

Japanese border controls have been a source of anxiety for foreign residents and businesses throughout the pandemic.

“The most obvious effect [of the controls] that foreign and domestic companies will not be able to bring in essential staff, ”Michael Mrocz, head of Japan’s European Business Council, told Al Jazeera.

“This means that the jobs may not be filled or that the top management will have to manage the company outside of Japan.”

Davide Rossi, Go! co-founder of the education company Go! Nihon told Al Jazeera that the head injury was particularly severe for international students who wanted to study in Japan.

“I am constantly receiving messages from students who have lost two years of their lives as a result of the ongoing ban,” Rossi said. “They can’t recover their tuition fee or lost time, and they are often very depressed and have no money to study elsewhere.”

‘Politically impossible’

The WHO has called for “rational” measures to tackle the new variant, which some scientists believe may be more transmissible than other strains or prevent vaccines, but has criticized the general travel ban.

Asked about the latest ban in Japan on Wednesday, Michael Ryan, head of the WHO’s Health Emergency Program, said it was “difficult to understand” from a scientific point of view.

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

Stephen Nagy, a visiting member of the think tank at the Japan Institute of International Affairs, told Al Jazeera that he believed the restrictions were “prudent” until more information about the variant was available.

But he acknowledged that concerns about Tokyo’s reopening had been exacerbated by a lack of exposure to the virus.

“Because Covid rates are so low at this stage, it seems politically impossible not to take an ultra-conservative approach to controlling the border for fear of spreading a new variant,” he said.

For people like Tania Sofia, the Portuguese nationality living in the UK, with the intention of entering Japan with her Japanese boyfriend, is a constant uncertainty.

Current rules state that only those who are allowed to re-enter can travel to Japan, and the Foreign Ministry’s website “while visas are not clear,” he told Al Jazeera.

“[Once married] My goal is to get a short-stay visa at the Japanese embassy in London so that I can return to Japan in January, “said Sofia.” But with this new ban, I don’t know if it will affect visa applications. we have our lives. ”