Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
As fears of COVID-19 wane, Japan prepares for tourists
TOKYO — The rickshaw men in Tokyo are adding English-speaking staff, a sure sign Japan is bracing for a return of tourists from abroad.
Japan’s border controls to curb the spread of coronavirus infections began gradually loosening earlier this month.
That’s great news for Yusuke Otomo, owner of Daikichi, a kimono rental shop in Asakusa, an old district of Tokyo famous for its temples, quaint restaurants and rickshaw rides.
“Those were a hard three years. But we managed to endure until today. And after such an experience, to think people from abroad can finally come back is simply thrilling,” Otomo said.
“I’m thinking that maybe, just as before COVID, my shop, the city of Asakusa and everyone’s hearts can flourish again. I can’t wait.”
Before the pandemic, Asakusa was so brimming with foreigners they sometimes outnumbered the Japanese. After the coronavirus struck, the streets were deserted — some kimono rental stores folded, while restaurants were shuttered.
The crowds are back with a gradual relaxing of the city’s COVID-19 restrictions, which called for restaurants to close early and people to social distance and limit attendance at events. But most of the visitors are Japanese.
Visitors must abide by guidelines requiring travelers to have a special coordinator, stay on specific routes and follow rules such as wearing masks and regularly using disinfectant.
Before COVID-19, tourism was booming as a mainstay of Japan’s economy, the world’s third largest. Foreign visitors numbered a record 32 million in 2019 and the target for 2020 was 40 million. After COVID19 struck, the government gradually imposed very restrictive limits on foreign arrivals, for a time excluding many foreign residents.
It’s now allowing foreign tourists to visit, but in limited numbers and only on group tours, not as individual travelers.
Visas are required for nearly everyone, even those from countries that normally would have visafree entry. And they’re available only to travelers from 98 so-called “blue” countries, including the U.S., who are deemed to pose a minimal health risk and can enter without a quarantine if they show proof they tested negative for COVID19 within 72 hours of their departures.
People entering Japan from countries considered to be a greater risk must quarantine for three days at home or in government-designated facilities. There is a daily cap on arrivals of 20,000 people, including all travelers. And the number of airports open to foreign tourists also is gradually expanding.
Some tourists are not deterred by the restrictions.
“When my friends asked me to join this trip to Japan, I immediately said, ‘Yes,’” said Sorrasek Thuantawee, an office worker who joined a group of eight Thais excitedly preparing to board a flight from Bangkok last week. “I visited Japan before. I love their food, their tradition and their highly organized culture. Japan is great.”