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How to deal with required tours, travel limits, and coronavirus protocols
Japan closed one of the strictest borders in the world during the pandemic, even though it had a record number of foreign visitors in 2019. After more than two years, the country is slowly allowing tourists to come back.
In May, the first step of the slow reopening was a test run. Fifty people from four countries, including the US, came for group tours with a guide. In June, Japan made this chance available to 98 countries with low rates of coronavirus infection, but the rules for entering the country are still complicated and strict. As of September 7, Japan will let up to 50,000 people into the country every day. This is more than twice as many as before. That will include tourists who want to travel without a guide but still have to book their trip through a tour company.
A local’s guide to Tokyo
The Immigration Services Agency of Japan said that in June, only 252 tourists came to the country (compared with nearly 32 million in June 2019). In July, that number reached about 7,900.
Yukari Sakamoto, a writer for By The Way Tokyo City Guide and the author of “Food Sake Tokyo,” said in an email that the lack of foreign tourists is “palpable.”
Mandy Bartok, a tour guide in Tokyo, says that the slow reopening has been a hot-button issue, and that people have been unhappy with the way things are done now. Still, Jeffrey M. Krevitt, vice president of marketing for Inside Travel Group, which owns InsideJapan Tours, said that tours are filling up quickly.
If you want to go to Japan, here are some things you should know before you go.
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What are the rules about travel?
Even though the number of people who can enter Japan has gone up, access has been “very limited,” according to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and Japanese consulates.
International travellers are allowed if they are “sponsored by a travel agent and/or are part of an authorised travel group located in Japan,” even if they haven’t had their shots. You don’t have to go with a tour group. Independent travel with a guide is allowed, and as of September 7, packaged trips without a guide will also be available.
Until then, you have to stay with your licenced guide or group leader at all times. They don’t have to sit next to you at every meal, but chaperoning will be taken seriously.
Heald said, “They have to sit you down, write down which seat you’re in, and be responsible for you.”
“And after dinner, you can’t just go to the bars and do whatever you want without your guide,” she said.
That’s just one of the things you have to do to get in.
On its website, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) has a checklist for travellers that includes six steps: booking an approved guided tour with a government-registered company or guide; applying for an eVisa; taking a nucleic acid amplification coronavirus test within 72 hours of your trip to Japan; downloading an app to register your test results; getting a QR code for immigration; and buying travel insurance.
At a news conference on August 24, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a news conference that travellers who have been vaccinated three times will no longer have to get tested after September 7.
U.S. travellers don’t have to go through quarantine, but those who have been to other countries in the 14 days before their trip to Japan may have to take a test or go to quarantine.
“To be completely honest, [the requirements] change a lot and are, let’s say, not always followed,” Krevitt said. “The process is hard and takes a long time.”
The U.S. Embassy gives the same warning and suggests that travellers check the website for Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the most up-to-date rules.
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What you need to know about protocols for coronavirus
There are signs that Japan is getting back to normal. “Morning rush hour trains are starting to feel crowded again, like they did before the pandemic,” Sakamoto said. But there are now new rules and manners that tourists must follow.
If you don’t like wearing masks, you shouldn’t go to Japan. Government rules say that foreign tourists must wear masks in public places unless they are outdoors and can keep their distance, are working out in a park, or are in a separate room and not talking to anyone. Bloomberg News said that if you don’t follow the rules about masks, you might be asked to leave Japan. Also, the U.S. Embassy says that foreign residents look bad when they don’t follow the rules about wearing masks.
When you can’t wear a mask, like when you’re eating or using a public bathroom, it’s polite to stay quiet so you don’t spread droplets.
Sakamoto says that visitors may also notice signs in front of stores and restaurants telling people to wear masks, hand sanitizer dispensers, and take temperatures. Some restaurants take their temperature before a person sits down at a table.
Festivals, sports games, and cultural performances are letting people back in (with masks), sometimes with fewer seats or seating farther away from each other. Fans have been told not to cheer at wrestling matches, baseball games, and soccer games, but this is starting to change. It is okay to clap.
Sakamoto says that strict precautions may seem strange to people from other countries, but he points out that, unlike in the U.S., people in Japan rarely get COVID. “It’s still something that most of us are still afraid of getting,” she said.
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How to eat and see the sights
Van Milton, an InsideJapan Tours guide based in Kyoto, says that after so many years of closed borders, the spirit of “omotenashi” hospitality—taking good care of guests—is even stronger.
“Everyone is happy to see visitors come back, from the family who runs a small ryokan in Hakone to the owner of a ramen shop in Osaka,” he said in an email.
On the company’s upcoming tours, travellers will do many of the things they could do in 2019, such as eating street food in Osaka, visiting samurai castles, staying in traditional ryokan inns, taking taiko drumming lessons, and soaking in hot spring baths.
Another benefit is that it’s now easier to get into restaurants that used to be hard to get into.
Don’t worry, this isn’t the future of tourism in Japan.
Bartok says that because of the need for supervision, visitors should expect to have their time and where they can go limited. Sakamoto also said that visitors won’t have as much freedom to roam and explore with a chaperone as they did before the pandemic.
Because of this catch, Kakurinbo Temple Lodge co-owner Junko Higuchi said in an email, “I would tell people from outside Japan to wait a little longer before making plans to visit.” She hopes, though, that “the situation will change quickly” so that travellers can be more independent.
Carlier says that people who want to go to Japan to see temples, shrines, and museums may find that now is a good time to go. But if you want to meet new people, go to local festivals, or check out the nightlife, he says to wait a year or two.
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