Wednesday, March 27

‘I cried all day’: the anguish of people expelled from Japan by Covid | Japan


Late last year, Pablo Ortez quit his job, sold his belongings and prepared to join his wife in Japan, where she is studying for a doctorate.

But 72 hours before his departure from Argentina, he checked Japan’s Foreign Ministry website and discovered that the government had imposed a near blanket travel ban to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

“I called the Japanese embassy and they told me I couldn’t fly,” said Ortez, who has moved in with his mother and doesn’t know when he will be able to meet his wife, whom he hasn’t seen since he last visited Argentina. April.

The 33-year-old is one of tens of thousands of people with plans to study, work or join family in Japan who now find themselves “locked out” from a country that has maintained some of the world’s strictest travel restrictions for the pandemic.

The latest measures, imposed in late November, apply to all arrivals except Japanese citizens and returning foreign residents: new students, guest workers, technical interns and, in some cases, foreign spouses and children of Japanese citizens. .

Lewis Hussey had set his heart on studying in Japan before graduating from college this summer. But the travel ban means the Missouri student has had to drastically rethink his plans.

Lewis Hussey
Stranded American student Lewis Hussey.

“It’s incredibly disappointing,” Hussey, 26, said. “There were times when it seemed like Japan was about to open up, and then it wasn’t. It’s frustrating because I could have considered other places. I feel that I have been cheated out of the opportunity to study abroad due to the inconsistent and pointless approach of the Japanese government.”

The World Health Organization has urged countries not to impose blanket travel bans, warning they were ineffective in preventing the spread of the virus and created economic and social misery.

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However, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is unlikely to make any significant changes to border policy, after a recent poll showed 88% of the public believed the move was “appropriate”.

But it hasn’t stopped Omicron from taking hold in Japan, which on Thursday reported a record 46,000 new Covid-19 cases. This weekend, much of the country, including Tokyo, will go into a near state of emergency to ease pressure on health services.

Japan has imposed strict travel restrictions during the pandemic, and measures to relax them were quickly undone by waves of infections fueled by new variants. The only exception came last summer, when tens of thousands of athletes, officials and journalists arrived for the Tokyo Olympics.

Mindful of how mismanagement of the pandemic helped unseat his predecessor, Yoshihide Suga, Kishida hopes the travel restrictions will work well with voters during the upper house elections in July.

Kishida recently said the ban would run until the end of February, but Jade Barry is bracing for more delays.

jade barry
Jade Barry: ‘I’ve been in love with Japan since I was little.’ Photography: brochure

The 29-year-old was poised to fulfill her career ambition of expanding her hairpiece business when the latest ban came into force, forcing her to abandon plans to find locations in Tokyo for her new outlet.

“I was devastated,” Barry said from her home near Chicago. “I cried all day and my children wondered what was wrong with mom.

“I have been in love with Japan since I was little. Expanding my business there was a way to achieve my ultimate goal of starting a life there. I still think it’s a beautiful country, but being banned for so long means I resent the government.”

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The stranded students have found little sympathy among Japanese politicians but have drawn support from some business leaders, who say the ban will stifle innovation and threaten Japan’s long-term interests as more students look to other countries, including economic rivals like South Korea.

Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of the e-commerce group Rakuten, compared the ban to the isolation brought about by the sakoku “closed country” policy during the Edo period (1603-1868). The day Kishida extended the restrictions, Mikitani tweeted: “What is the point of not letting in new foreigners now? Do you want to isolate Japan from the rest of the world?

A letter to Kishida signed this week by hundreds of scholars and experts on Japan-US studies urged his government to relax border controls to allow educators, students and scholars to enter Japan.

“They become the bridges between Japan and other societies. They are future policymakers, business leaders, and teachers,” the letter said. “They are the foundation of the US-Japan alliance and other international relationships that support Japan’s core national interests. The closure is harming Japan’s national interests and international relations.”

“It’s frustrating,” said Imane, a 20-year-old Canadian student who has waited two years to start her Japanese language studies in Tokyo. “It’s been two years of wasting time, waiting for Japan to open its borders.

“I love Japan, so this is heartbreaking, but I can’t wait my whole life,” added Imane, who preferred to use only her first name. “If Japan doesn’t open its borders this year, I’ll have to look elsewhere.”

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His frustrations are shared by Vilhelm, a student from Lithuania, who wakes up at 4:30 am to take online classes in international business studies at a university in Tokyo.

A woman in India whose husband is in Japan.
A woman in India whose husband is in Japan. Photography: brochure

“The most frustrating part is that I can’t see the end of this,” said Vilhelm, who asked that his last name not be used. “I have invested in studying in Japan and I feel that I am being treated very unfairly. I still love Japan, but sometimes I forget why.”

barry took to social media to rally students and others stranded behind a campaign to end the restrictions, with protests outside Japanese embassies planned for later this month.

“To be robbed of the opportunity to come to Japan is devastating. And I can’t imagine what it’s like not being able to see your son due to border restrictions. Uncertainty is no longer acceptable. This is literally ruining people’s lives.”

The government responded to mounting criticism by opening the door, if only by a fraction. It will allow 87 students on government scholarships to enter in February, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said last week. But that leaves almost 150,000 others, mostly privately funded, who have been waiting up to two years to start their studies.

They will continue to live in limbo, not knowing when they will be able to start their new lives in a country that has effectively become a hermit kingdom of Covid.

“Japan is hurting its soft power and its economy because it is punishing people who have a genuine interest in the country,” Ortez said. “He’s ruining his reputation. This will have long-term consequences for Japan.”




www.theguardian.com

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