There have been numerous reports in the past week claiming that the Japanese government is planning to cover 50% of foreign travel expenses in order to reboot their tourism industry. However, it seems that the reports were a classic case of a ‘lost in translation’ incident by news outlets and bloggers worldwide.
Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) clarified in a statement that the 50% travel expenses coverage campaign under consideration is only for domestic tourism and Japanese citizens.
“Please note that the ‘Go to Travel’ Campaign under consideration by the Japanese government is to stimulate domestic travel demand within Japan after the Covid-19 pandemic and only cover a portion of domestic travel expenses,” JPNO stated.
In the age where international tourism is put to a halt due to the spread of Covid-19, we should’ve known that the travel expenses subsidy report is too good to be true. In fact, it straight up makes no sense considering that Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has been tightening the borders of its country to deal with the pandemic.
One of the precautions being taken is to ban indefinitely, tourists from 111 countries into Japan and of course, that list includes Indonesia.
Furthermore, the visa exemption given to Indonesian by the Japanese government is also suspended for the time being. For now, the suspension is listed until the end of June but the possibility of it being renewed is quite high.
As for Japanese citizens who are returning home from any of the 111 countries listed, a mandatory 14 days quarantine must be served before going back to their homes.
And the ban covers all foreign nationals who have stayed in any of the areas listed in the following table within 14 days prior to the application for landing.
Asia
- Afghanistan,
- Brunei,
- Bangladesh,
- China,
- Hong Kong,
- India,
- Indonesia,
- Kyrgyzstan,
- Macau,
- Malaysia,
- Maldives,
- Pakistan,
- Philippines,
- Republic of Korea,
- Singapore,
- Taiwan,
- Tajikistan
- Thailand,
- Vietnam
Oceania
- Australia,
- New Zealand
North America
- Canada,
- United States of America
Latin America and the Caribbean
- Antigua and Barbuda,
- Argentina,
- Barbados,
- Bahamas,
- Bolivia,
- Brazil,
- Chile,
- Colombia,
- Dominica,
- Dominican Republic,
- Ecuador,
- El Salvador,
- Honduras,
- Mexico,
- Panama,
- Peru,
- Saint Christopher and Nevis,
- Uruguay
Europe
- Albania,
- Andorra,
- Armenia,
- Austria,
- Azerbaijan,
- Belarus,
- Belgium,
- Bosnia and Herzegovina,
- Bulgaria, Croatia,
- Cyprus, Czech,
- Denmark,
- Estonia,
- Finland,
- France,
- Germany,
- Greece,
- Hungary,
- Iceland,
- Ireland,
- Italy,
- Kazakhstan,
- Kosovo,
- Latvia,
- Liechtenstein,
- Lithuania,
- Luxembourg,
- Malta,
- Moldova,
- Monaco,
- Montenegro,
- Netherlands,
- North Macedonia,
- Norway,
- Poland,
- Portugal,
- Romania,
- Russia,
- San Marino,
- Serbia,
- Slovakia,
- Slovenia,
- Spain,
- Sweden,
- Switzerland,
- Ukraine,
- United Kingdom,
- Vatican
Middle East
- Bahrain,
- Iran,
- Israel,
- Kuwait,
- Oman,
- Qatar,
- Saudi Arabia,
- Turkey,
- United Arab Emirates
Africa
- Cape Verde,
- Côte d’Ivoire,
- Democratic Republic of the Congo,
- Djibouti,
- Egypt,
- Equatorial Guinea,
- Gabon,
- Ghana,
- Guinea,
- Guinea-Bissau,
- Mauritius,
- Morocco,
- Sao Tome and Principe,
- South Africa.
