Japan Tourism Trial Disappointment

Japan announced earlier this week (read more here) that they would allow a small number of tour groups from four countries to enter starting this month on a trial basis.

What they didn’t announce was how insignificant is the number of tourists allowed in (FIFTY) and what is the maximum number of people in a group (FOUR).

Excerpt from the Washington Post:

In a test to prepare for a larger resumption of travel, the country is planning to allow about 50 vaccinated-and-boosted travelers to visit as part of organized tours later this month, the Japan Tourism Agency said Tuesday. The pool of 50 travelers will be allowed from four countries Japan has designated as priority markets: the United States, Australia, Thailand and Singapore.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the travelers would be selected, or which tour companies would be involved. The Associated Press reported that each tour group would be capped at four people.

Conclusion

This reminds me of the announcement Japan made earlier that they would remove the entry ban of foreigners but didn’t mention that all non-citizens would require a visa that are not currently issued for tourism purposes (outside of this tiny trial).

I understand that Japan tries to signal outside that they are slowly reopening in stages, but I doubt that many conclusions can be drawn by letting a maximum of FIFTY tourists in from four countries that are on North Korea-style tours.

Some changes are coming in June, when the daily maximum international arrivals are set to increase from 10,000 to 20,000, including returning Japanese.