Japan is counting on the return of foreign tourists to help boost the economy, but the biggest source of foreign visitors - China - isn’t reopening any time soon
When Phoebe Kam saw the news Japan was finally reopening to foreign tourists on October 11, after two years of strict pandemic controls, it felt like fate. The Hong Konger had just lost her father, and could think of nowhere better to decompress and heal.
The dropping of visa and COVID testing requirements aren’t the only attraction — the weak yen means that for Hong Kongers, whose currency is pegged to the U.S. dollar, Japan is particularly cheap right now. Americans are also expected to come in great numbers this fall and winter. “Tourism basically evaporated during COVID, the border rules were so strict,” said Norihiro Yamaguchi, a Tokyo-based senior economist with Oxford Economics.
As Hong Kong, Japan, and later this week Taiwan all reopen their borders, China is maintaining a tough “COVID zero” policy, and even limits overseas travel by residents, fearing they will bring infections back with them. “They have the memory of travelling to foreign countries, especially Asian countries, when the economy was booming and the yen was strong, and they don’t like the idea of tourists coming to Japan because it’s cheap,” he told The Globe. “They believe that as Japan is not a developing country, we shouldn’t rely on tourism.”
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