The Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus has made things very tense and that is no more true than in the country of Japan. Effective Thursday the Japanese government has temporarily suspended one-month visas that have been issued and can not be used to enter Japan unless they are a citizen or a diplomat. This comes as a shock as Japan was preparing for people to enter the country starting with Students who have been waiting up to three years to study abroad in Japan. Japan was also beginning to send out work Visas to businessmen, Teachers, and even athletes but this too has been postponed and people will have to wait.
When asked about the specifics of the restrictions and who can have the Visa, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno was very evasive in the question and said “At present, (those individuals) are eligible to return to Japan,” he told reporters without denying the possibility of a change in policy. “Moving forward, it’s important to respond to the outbreak quickly and decisively.”
When the Japanese government will issue visas again is unknown, but when they do they will surely fall behind, as on a more personal note is why I was not able to study abroad. The opening of the borders was a blessing but the devil was in the details, the Japanese government was overwhelmed by how many people were let into the country and could not process all of the visas. It got so bad that they could only process 10,000 visas a day and once in the country, you were met with a two-week quarantine. Let's hope the borders do open soon and that is on top of the visa processing so that not only I but also everyone else can go to Japan.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/12/03/national/visa-suspensions-omicron/
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/11/17/national/foreign-students-covid-rules/
2 comments:
This new COVID-19 variant is making it very hard to travel, especially for long periods of time. I am supposed to study abroad in the Spring semester, but there is a looming cloud of doubt due to the new variant. Hopefully students can get their visas and be able to study abroad.
With the new variant, it seems as if there are a lot of countries locking down again. One thing that I have also noticed is that there is a great difference between this variant and the others. Some countries have considered it less of a threat, while other think it could be much worse.
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