"Japan to start accepting tourists on June 10"
.
This was the headline of the Nikkei
media article on
Thursday, May 26, quoting Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's statements at his annual
Future of Asia
summit .
A technically accurate but misleading “scoop”.
Japan is reopening its doors to tourists, but with two details: it only opens them ajar (see box);
and very few tourists meet the entry requirements.
As enthusiastic as the rabbit in the light of the headlights in the face of the onslaught of tourists that is coming, the administration intends
to "hurry slowly"
and open by successive cracks.
To discover
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Explanations.
Japan is, apart from the huge Chinese exception and North Korea, the only country in Asia-Pacific to keep its borders closed to tourists with no fixed opening date.
While business and student visas are now being issued, and increasingly easily, national and local politicians distinguish them from those of foreign tourists, whose travel is considered
"non-essential"
and in whom they see a risk of contamination.
"Groups under escort"
Why ?
Health officials note that the latter wear the mask much less than the Japanese, while they believe that this piece of fabric served as a wall for the virus which caused very few victims in the population.
Hence the snail's slowness of the reopening, with North Korean accents:
"We will start accepting tourists by group under escort again"
, Fumio Kishida declared Thursday in front of the Nikkei audience.
Still draconian conditions
From June 10, Japan will reopen part of its territory to tourists from 98 countries where the Covid situation is relatively stable, including France, but travelers will only be able to enter in groups.
Testing is taking place this May with organized trips in small groups from the United States, Australia, Thailand and Singapore.
Japan will also increase the number of airports accepting international flights to seven by adding Naha in Okinawa (south) and Shin-Chitose in Hokkaido (north).
Takeshi Yamaguchi, economist at Morgan Stanley, recalls in a study published this Friday how little tourists count for the Japanese economy:
“In 2019, Japan welcomed 31.88 million foreign visitors, an average of 87 346 entries per day.
In April of this year, they were only 4,650 visitors per day.
Even if the maximum daily maximum number reached around 20,000, it would still be well below pre-Covid levels.
In 2019, direct purchases by non-resident households represented 0.81% of GDP.
In 2021, the total fell to… 0.09%”
.
No airplane seats
The “reopening” on June 10?
Admittedly, “
but with a ceiling of 20,000 entries which also includes Japanese, and a chronic undercapacity for transport compared to before covid.
There are simply no plane seats for applicants
,” explains the executive of a foreign carrier.
Example: in 2019, before covid-19, there were 45 Paris-Tokyo flights per week;
there are some today… 8. “Reopening”?
Yes, but to whom?
Japan has lost most of its tourist clientele: the Chinese, who represented (with Hong Kong) 37.3% of arrivals and still leave their territory with the worst difficulties.
“Reopening”?
Admittedly still, but only for groups duly organized by approved agencies, no doubt at a high price, and while the Western tourist clientele, available and spendthrift, generally travels individually.
“It's infuriating because it is precisely now, when Chinese tourists are not coming, that Japan could attract wealthy Western tourists, who travel independently
,” fulminates the director of a European travel agency.
Read alsoGood behavior to adopt when you are a tourist in Japan
This is not the first false start launched by Japan.
The country has been welcoming for a few days small groups of test tourists followed as soon as they get off the plane and examined by the country's cameras like delegations of extraterrestrials.
Only 15 prefectures out of 47, according to our information, have accepted them on their territory.
Yet these are not even genuine tourists, but tour operators who will later be responsible for "managing" their customers dreaming of coming to Japan.
After "Endless Discovery", will Japan's slogan be: "Endless surveillance"?
Hopefully not.
Between next September and December, according to the plans of the Tourism Agency, tourists should finally be able to enjoy this wonderful country without hindrance.
“It must be a strategy… They create the lack to arouse the desire…”
, jokes a longtime expatriate businessman in Japan.
Half.
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