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Latest Coronavirus News From Japan
Last updated 29 September 2022, 00:00 BST
Latest news
Announced on 22nd September, the final stage of Japan’s re-opening to tourism will be complete on October 11th 2022 when the requirement to get a visa is dropped for passport holders of countries including the UK, most of Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Japan also recently announced the dropping the requirement for a pre-departure PCR test for triple vaccinated travellers from 7th September 2022 (NHK News).
Coronavirus cases in Japan are now on a downward trend and daily infections should be back to very low levels by September (Mainichi News).
Meanwhile, vaccinations are full steam ahead with over 82% of Japan's population fully vaccinated. Booster shots are rolling out at an ever-increasing rate, with the government announcing on July 23rd that fourth vaccine shots are now available to medical staff and care home workers, besides the elderly and vulnerable (Japan Today).
August summary
Japan’s seventh wave of Covid peaked in August and started coming down towards the end of the month. The Japanese government started to take a ‘living with Covid’ approach this month, similar to other G7 nations.
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Are Japanese people being vaccinated?
Yes! As of September 2022, nearly 300,000,000 doses of covid-19 vaccines have been administered nationwide. Japan should be commended for this effort - this has resulted in one of the fastest vaccination rates in the world per capita. To date, over 80% of the population have been fully vaccinated (Our World in Data - COVID vaccinations).
All individuals over the age of 18 are eligible for a booster shot 6 months after their second dose, with priority going to medical workers. Currently, the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines have been approved for a booster (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare). Boosters are currently being distributed, with over 50% of the general population and 86.9% of the elderly having received theirs (Japan Today).
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What are Japan's coronavirus restrictions?
Compared to the strict restrictions seen across many countries since the pandemic began in 2020, Japan has gotten by with minimal restrictions on day-to-day life. The Japanese constitution prevents the government from enforcing a lockdown, which would be considered an infringement on personal freedoms. Until February 2021, its only recourse was to declare a “state of emergency” in regions where cases were rising. This meant that restrictions on movement and working hours could be suggested, but not be enforced.
Now “state of emergency” free, Japan is ready to welcome inbound tourism back.
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What is life like in Japan in 2022?
For the most part, day-to-day life in Japan has changed little during the pandemic — though this has varied from region to region. Tokyo, for instance, has seen the highest numbers and stricter guidelines, while rural preferences such as Iwate have seen almost no cases and very few restrictions.
As in most of the world, there have also been some small but noticeable changes to daily life. The majority of establishments now have dedicated entrances and exits with alcohol sanitisers, and most will also check your temperature as you enter. Local train operators operate with open windows, plastic sheets and dividers are commonplace at restaurants and cafés, and whether inside or outside, you will see that majority of people are choosing to continue wearing masks. The diligent adherence to all of these rules by the general public is certainly a testament to why Japan has come through well throughout the pandemic.
In recent months, more and more people are finally starting to feel comfortable being out and about, breathing life once again into major tourist sites such as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Tokyo Skytree and the Ghibli Museum. Restaurants have seen near-normal numbers of visitors (though with restrictions in certain areas, such as limiting the number of people inside at one time). People are still commuting to work on public transport despite some efforts to normalise working from home, and businesses are generally operating normal hours.
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How is Japan doing compared to other countries in 2022?
Due to the huge number of variables, it is notoriously difficult to draw conclusions about different national responses to the pandemic. Different countries test, record and release data in different ways, and this can easily distort statistics — sometimes wildly. The bottom line is this: take everything you hear with a big pinch of salt.
With that said, here are the official statistics: Japan has seen over 13,000,000 cases of Covid-19 since the pandemic began, and over 32,000 people have died following a positive test result.
On their own, these numbers don’t really tell us very much. A better way to put it in perspective is to look at the daily cases and deaths per million.
Another useful comparison is to look at “excess deaths”, which means the number of deaths above what would have been expected under “normal” conditions. This can be more revealing than just looking at deaths from Covid-19, since it takes a more holistic view of the effects of the pandemic on mortality.
For example, The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine reported that during 2020 the UK had a cumulative excess mortality rate of 10.5% above the five-year average, while the USA recorded a 12.9% increase. By contrast, countries such as South Korea, Iceland, Denmark and Norway saw reductions in excess deaths of up to -4.3% over the same period. Though Japan was not included in these figures, an academic from Tokushima University published a study showing that Japan also saw a net decrease in excess deaths during 2020 compared with the previous four years.
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Why has Japan fared well over the pandemic?
What is most striking from these above statistics are the all-round low numbers. Confirmed cases, deaths, active cases and numbers tested are still low in Japan compared with other hotspots around the world (Japan Times). So why is this?
Numerous theories have been provided so far. These range from the more reasonable — the sheer number of vaccinations administered (BBC News), early and effective communication to avoid closed, crowded spaces with close contact, and cultural norms of mask-wearing (New York Times) — to the more far-fetched. For example, some have argued that Japanese is spoken more delicately than other languages and therefore speakers emit fewer spit particles! (Business Insider)
Whatever the reasons for Japan’s overall success, it seems that we can be cautiously optimistic. Something they’re doing is clearly working.
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