Entry into Japan, from August 2020

[rjcurran]

My Japanese wife and I (i'm British) are in the midst of securing a CoE application and if all goes well with the Japanese embassy here in Malaysia where we live, we plan to move to Japan in October or November this year.

Does anyone have an actual experience of returning to Japan this month into Tokyo/Osaka and if so could you please share your experience and any advice?

What happened on arrival?

How long did your PCR test results take?

Where did you wait while your test results were being tested?

If you stayed in a hotel during your 2 week isolation, where did you stay and how did you get there from the airport?

What did you have to do after your two week isolation?

... and any other information you think relevant.

[adamu]

Sorry no personal experience but this Reddit thread may be useful
https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comm ... exit_mail/

[rjcurran]

Thank you for the link

[TokyoWart]

My Japanese wife and I (i'm British) are in the midst of securing a CoE application and if all goes well with the Japanese embassy here in Malaysia where we live, we plan to move to Japan in October or November this year.

Does anyone have an actual experience of returning to Japan this month into Tokyo/Osaka and if so could you please share your experience and any advice?

What happened on arrival?

How long did your PCR test results take?

Where did you wait while your test results were being tested?

If you stayed in a hotel during your 2 week isolation, where did you stay and how did you get there from the airport?

What did you have to do after your two week isolation?

... and any other information you think relevant.

I think the rules may have changed but I arrived back from the US on July 27 at Narita my experience was:

It took about 2 hours to finish everything from the start of deboarding to being able to be escorted from the airport to my transportation.

They do check the paperwork you have as your excuse for re-entry (I was re-entering after going to the US for a medical reason) and it helped to have it translated into Japanese.

They told me my test results would be available in 3 days but in fact they sent them after 2 days. This might be a Narita thing because a Japanese friend who arrived through Haneda got their results while at the airport after 2-3 hours.

They have some system using Line to allow them to contact you. I don't have Line so I gave them my phone number and they kind of implied they might call me but never did.

They are very strict about how you leave the airport and I was escorted at all times. You can't use mass transit (including taxis) but they had a list of providers you can call for special transportation. That cost 55,000 yen in my case and involved riding in a medium-sized tourist bus with no one else besides the driver (and his driving space was partitioned off in plastic). You can rent a car if you want or have a friend pick you up.

I quarantined in my home and they were fine with that.

They take that 14 day quarantine seriously so I did too (no mass transit, just essential exits from the house, work from home, etc.). After all the paperwork I signed in Narita that I agreed to the restrictions I assumed they would be sending someone out or tracking my phone or something but I never had any other contact (besides the e-mail notification of my negative test results).

[rjcurran]

Thank you for detailed reply, much appreciated.

At present we do not have our own place in Japan, so we are initially planning to stay in a service apartment. However, the service apartment we are planning to rent will not allow us to move in until we can show them a negative PCR result. So, I assume we will have to wait at the airport or at a location determined by the local authorities until our results are ready. I was pleased to hear that special transportation is provided at the airport, albeit expensive.

If any other readers have any other experiences please let me know, we are trying to organise ourselves and cover all eventualities.

[KyushuWoozy]

Finally we can travel again

>>>

NHK has learned that the Japanese government is planning to ease the strict re-entry ban that has been in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

The government is currently denying entry to foreigners from 146 countries and territories. The restrictions even apply to permanent residents and students. Exceptions can be made for childbirths and relatives' funerals.

But calls have been growing to relax the ban to spur the resumption of social and economic activity.

So the government is planning to allow the re-entry of all residential status holders on the condition that they take PCR virus tests and quarantine themselves for two weeks at designated hotels.

<<<<

Copied from NHK World (sorry don't have link because I read it on the app)

[Dabitto]

Finally we can travel again

>>>

NHK has learned that the Japanese government is planning to ease the strict re-entry ban that has been in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

The government is currently denying entry to foreigners from 146 countries and territories. The restrictions even apply to permanent residents and students. Exceptions can be made for childbirths and relatives' funerals.

But calls have been growing to relax the ban to spur the resumption of social and economic activity.

So the government is planning to allow the re-entry of all residential status holders on the condition that they take PCR virus tests and quarantine themselves for two weeks at designated hotels.

<<<<

Copied from NHK World (sorry don't have link because I read it on the app)

At last some good news. Thanks for sharing KyushuWoozy!

Does anyone know if this only applies to the foreigners stuck outside Japan or also to foreigners currently in Japan?
The article doesn't seem to clarify this. Some quick google searches in Japanese/English didn't give me any answers.

[adamu]

Copied from NHK World (sorry don't have link because I read it on the app)

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200821_04/

Still rather lacking in details. Probably best to wait for more concrete (and official) information before making any plans.

[RetireJapan]

The new rules from September are here: http://www.moj.go.jp/content/001327497.pdf

I think these are worse, in that in practice it may be more difficult to get permission to reenter now. There are several possible hurdles:
-being able to get a suitable Covid test within 72 hours before your flight (you have to take the right type of test, as defined by Japan)
-there being enough testing capacity at the airport to process you
-getting permission to leave and come back in advance

Personally I would not leave and expect to be able to come back in a timely manner for the time being.

[RetireJapan]

So far this year more than 1200 died of COVID and there is still a few month to go so difficult to say.

I agree partly, but important to remember that 1200 died of Covid despite the social distancing, masks, soft lockdowns, business closures, stay home, travel reduction, etc.

Flu deaths are massively down this year too.

So we can't say for sure what the number of deaths would have been if we had ignored Covid completely.