Coronavirus: Japan is facing its 7th Covid wave, but the tourism industry’s not worried

With upwards of 37,000 new daily cases, officials say there can be ‘no doubt’ that Japan’s been hit by a ‘new wave’ fuelled by the BA.5 subvariant

But the government has yet to reintroduce any travel curbs – and the country’s ‘desperate’ tourism industry is banking on things staying that way

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Japanese tourism and retail industry workers greet a group of tourists from Hong Kong upon their arrival in Tokyo last month. Photo: Reuters

Published: 3:00pm, 13 Jul 2022Updated: 4:25pm, 13 Jul 2022

There’s “no doubt” that Japan is in the midst of its seventh wave of Covid-19, the head of the government’s pandemic advisory panel has said, but there appears to have been a shift in attitudes towards the virus – at least in the country’s tourism sector.

Health authorities reported 37,413 new cases on Monday – a 120 per cent week-on-week increase – with more than 6,200 of those in the capital Tokyo. Yet in contrast to earlier spikes in infections, no additional restrictions have been introduced in a bid to curb viral spread.

Shigeru Omi, the advisory panel head, has said the “new wave” is being fuelled by the BA.5 subvariant of Omicron, which is understood to be highly transmissible. However, he did not recommend reintroducing travel curbs in a meeting on Monday with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

People walk along a narrow street in Kyoto last month, after Japan had begun gradually reopening to foreign tourists. Photo: Bloomberg

Insiders say Japan’s tourism industry is “desperate” to welcome back foreign visitors in large numbers – the country reopened to foreign tourists last month, but only for tour groups not individual travellers, with the number of arrivals capped at 20,000 per day. They must wear face masks or risk being sent home.

Surveys suggest an increasing number of Japanese support a policy of living with the virus and do not want the country’s borders to be closed again, though there is some latent anxiety about imported infections being brought in by foreigners.

Attitudes could still change, especially if Japan’s seventh Covid wave nears the peak of its sixth on February 3, when 104,345 new daily cases were reported. Researchers at the Nagoya Institute of Technology have called for the government to reintroduce a quasi-state of emergency, which earlier saw bars and restaurants asked to close early and residents urged to avoid unnecessary travel, after running an AI-based simulation that predicted Tokyo would hit more than 13,000 cases a day by mid-August.

A spokeswoman for Japan Airlines Co. said the national carrier was “taking everything pretty much day by day at the moment” as it watched to see how authorities balanced the need to protect, and boost, the economy with safeguarding people’s lives.