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| Above, the area near Harajuku Station in Tokyo during normal times. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
As I've said before when it comes to tourism to Japan, I'll believe it when I see it.
It looks like Japan will remain off-limits to foreign tourism for the foreseeable future.
Japan Today reported:
TOKYO - Filled with pink and fuzzy things and cuddly bears, 6%DOKIDOKI, a tiny store in the heart of Tokyo’s Harajuku district, is bursting with “kawaii,” the Japanese for “cuteness.”
What it doesn’t have enough of, as in zero, are foreign tourists. And it could sure use some.
Like much of Asia, including Taiwan, Vietnam and Australia, Japan’s borders remain closed to tourists. While other Asian countries are inching toward reopening, Japanese borders will likely remain shut for some time to come. That’s a hardship for the many businesses that had come to rely on foreign tourists, who numbered 32 million in 2019, before the pandemic.
While mandatory quarantine requirements have been eased somewhat after the number of new coronavirus cases plunged from hundreds per day to a few dozen per day in Tokyo, unlike the Indonesian resort island of Bali and some destinations in Thailand, Japan remains off-limits to foreign tourists.
Japan has also effectively shut out foreign students and business travelers. A big exception, much criticized, was made for athletes and officials arriving for the Tokyo Olympics earlier this year.
People remain nervous about foreign travel in this insular “island culture,” said Kotaro Toriumi, a tourism analyst and travel books author.
Toriumi, who teaches at Tokyo's Teikyo University, thinks foreign tourism won’t revive for another year or two, even though about 73% of Japanese are fully vaccinated. That’s a much higher rate than most other Asian countries, except for Singapore.
Even if the borders reopen, tourism won't revive if Japan continues to require 10-day quarantines by travelers arriving from overseas, he said.
To read more, go here.
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