Japan next week will ease its much criticized coronavirus border controls, but the new policy only allows 5,000 new entrants per day, up from 3,500, including Japanese nationals, beginning March 1.
FILE - Passengers wait in line before moving onto their temporary housing for quarantine as they come out of an arrival gate for international flights at the Narita International Airport in Narita, east of Tokyo, on Dec. 2, 2021. Japan will ease its much criticized coronavirus border controls, but the new policy only allows 5,000 new entrants per day, up from 3,500, including Japanese nationals, beginning March 1.
“It's still better than nothing,” said Jommy Kwok, who has missed nearly all of her first year of post-graduate classes in atmospheric science at Hokkaido University.Kwok was the only one in her class who had to take classes and do research online while remaining in Hong Kong. Her 20 classmates returned to the campus when coronavirus infections slowed rapidly late last year, before the more recent omicron wave. “I have been quite left out,” she said in an online interview.
Critics have compared Japan’s strict and prolonged border measures to the “sakoku” locked-country policy of the xenophobic warlords who ruled the country in the 17th to 19th centuries. Some say it hurts Japan's national interests by locking out skilled foreigners who could bring valuable ideas, business and work to the country.
Under the restrictions, Japan also might have missed future business partners because foreign companies that consider the border measures a risk factor might avoid business or investment here, he said. “At this point, the damage is greater than the benefit,” said Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Akio Mimura, who called for a further easing of the daily entry cap. Mimura, noting widespread public support for tough border measures, urged the government to raise awareness that the policy is harming parts of society.
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