Japan eases COVID-19 induced border controls amid criticism as exclusionist

Japan is set to announce an easing of its strict border controls by raising the daily quota for foreign arrivals and shortening the quarantine requirement starting in March, following criticisms that the country’s policy is unscientific and xenophobic.

Senior officials in Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s governing party recently said they are looking to raise the daily entry limit from the current 3,500 starting March 1 to 3,500 as a way of relaxing border measures for foreign scholars, students and businessmen. 5,000 are considering. Tourists will not be included in this measure for now.

Japanese media reported that it is considering shortening the period of self-isolation after entry from the currently required seven to three days. Officials are also considering eliminating the self-isolation requirement for non-resident foreigners who have proof of a negative COVID-19 test result and a booster shot.

Kishida is expected to announce a plan and explain the details at a news conference later on Thursday.

Kishida said on Saturday that he was considering easing border measures based on a scientific assessment of infection levels in and out of Japan and quarantine measures taken by other countries.

Most of Japan is currently under virus-related restrictions. Infections have recently started showing signs of slowing down, possibly due to delays in booster shots.

Nationwide, Japan reported 91,006 new cases on Wednesday, slightly less than a week ago, after the caseload passed 100,000 on February 5.

But experts say infections are taking a toll on Japan’s medical systems that are easily overwhelmed because COVID-19 treatment is limited to public or major hospitals.

Japan has become one of the world’s most difficult countries to enter, and critics compare it to the “sakoku” closed country policy of the xenophobic warlords who ruled Japan from the 17th to the 19th centuries.

Current border rules – set to remain in place until the end of February – only allow Japanese citizens and permanent foreign residents. The policy has raised protests from foreign students and scholars, of whom about 150,000 have been affected.

Japanese and foreign trade groups have also opposed the government, saying the prolonged border closures have affected investment, trade deals, product development and distribution.

Experts say the rules are hurting Japan’s national interest and further delaying the recovery of Japan’s pandemic-hit economy.

Many Japanese people have been supportive of tighter border controls because they feel that pandemic-like trouble comes from outside their island nation. Kishida’s tight border controls are widely seen as politically motivated to gain public support for his governing party in the upcoming July parliamentary elections.

However, Kishida’s government faces public criticism over slow booster vaccine delivery, due to cutting the interval between the first two shots and delaying the third to six months from the initially planned eight.

Kishida has set a target of giving one million doses daily by the end of February.

Only about 12% of Japan’s population has got their third jobs. Experts say low vaccination rates contribute to a growing number of serious cases and deaths among elderly patients.

While the rapidly spreading omicron type is less likely to cause severe cases in young people, it is causing serious illness in the elderly and death from worsening of their underlying diseases, which has begun to impact many hospitals.

Kishida is expected to announce other virus measures on Thursday, including subsidies to hospitals that accept elderly patients and increased allowances for nursing homes to treat their residents instead of sending them to hospitals.