TOKYO, Feb 17 (BNA): Japan is set to announce Thursday that it will ease border controls put in place to counter the spread of COVID-19, the strictest measures among wealthy nations that have been criticized by business and individual leaders. educated.
About 150,000 foreign students, as well as staff badly needed by an aging society with a shrinking population, have been turned away from the country, raising fears of labor shortages and damaging Japan’s reputation around the world.
Japan briefly relaxed its border rules, which effectively kept the country closed to non-residents for two years, in late 2021 but tightened them again just weeks later as the Omicron variant emerged overseas, Reuters reported.
Among the measures to be announced is an increase in the number of people allowed into Japan to 5,000 per day from the current 3,500, according to media reports.
Others would likely include shortening the required quarantine period, currently a week, to 3 days under certain conditions, such as the level of coronavirus risk in the country people are traveling from and whether they have been fully vaccinated, including a booster dose .
Japan has classified 82 countries as “high risk”, many of which must spend 3 or 6 days in hotel quarantine as part of a week of isolation. Until mid-January, a two-week quarantine was required.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to announce the new measures at a press conference on Thursday. Media reports say they will come into effect in phases from March.
Kishida and his government have praised the tight border controls for buying time for Japan as Omicron has spread all over the world, and a clear majority of the public supports it.
However, with the now-common variant in Japan, which is struggling to roll out booster shots, industry executives and lawmakers have warned that the measures are no longer effective.
Political analyst Atsu Ito said Kishida’s view, who faces a crucial election in July, on when and how to change procedures, has been difficult.
“If you look at the general situation now, you will find that it is meaningless; you can catch the virus anywhere. But because of them, he got a lot of public support,” he said.
“The long-term outcome is that Japan will be left behind by the rest of the world,” he said, if they don’t change.
But the response on social media has been quite harsh, with many people questioning why the border rules are being relaxed while much of Japan is still under restrictions due to the coronavirus, and others noting that Kishida was simply being criticized.
“The Kishida government doesn’t know what it wants to do, so it simply follows the voice that screams the loudest,” Recklessschamp27 wrote.
FA