Small Japan border easing stirs hope, worry for foreigners

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

TOKYO -- Next week Japan will ease tough coronavirus border controls that have been criticized as xenophobic and damaging to the economy. The new rules, however, provide only a slight improvement: 5,000 new entrants per day, instead of the current 3,500, and nowhere near the estimated 64,000 a day that were entering for long-term visits before the pandemic.

The 5,000 daily arrivals also includes Japanese nationals returning to the country, which means hundreds of thousands of foreigners will still struggle to enter.

An estimated half million foreign students, teachers, workers accredited as technical interns and business travelers have been locked out and waiting to get in for nearly two years. Under the policy that takes effect March 1, it would take several more months of patience before everyone can get in.

“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.