<![CDATA[Coronavirus: Japan's quarantine rules for Hong Kong, China, South Korea dismissed as 'too late']>

In Japan, the government's decision to require visitors arriving from China, Hong Kong, Macau or South Korea to undergo a two-week quarantine for the novel coronavirus has largely been shrugged off as an inevitable move, or criticised as coming too late.

"Should have done this as soon as the outbreak occurred in China," said one message on the Japan Today news website. "[Prime Minister Shinzo] Abe was too interested in playing world statesman and [protecting] tourism. Too little, too late."

Another commenter said: "Most of us posting on here have been calling for this weeks and weeks ago. Better late than never, I guess."

Others are calling for more extreme measures. One message on the site read, "Just close the borders", while another poster added: "Not quarantine. Deny entry!"

Min Zheng Wan, a Chinese national who works in the Japan offices of Shenzhen-based drone manufacturer DJI Inc, said the Japanese government's decision was forcing many companies to alter their operations.

"Something like this will not affect me personally too much, but I can see this causing a lot of new disruption for companies," Min said.

"With what has happened in the last few weeks, we have all had to change the ways in which we work," he said. "I'm on the IT side of operations, but for people in management, sales or anyone else who is expected to travel a lot with work, something like this is going to be a big problem.

"But it's not completely unexpected and we will just have to adapt," he added.

In South Korea, however, the response has been far more angry, with Seoul condemning the Abe government's move and saying it would consider retaliating, such as by raising its travel advisory for its neighbour.

South Korea has seen a surge of cases in recent weeks, with more than 6,500 patients and 42 deaths. Most of the infections are linked to the southeastern city of Daegu, where a Christian sect with controversial beliefs, the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, is based.

Japan has reported at least 1,056 cases " including more than 700 from the virus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise liner that was quarantined in Yokohama " and 12 fatalities. Cases rose by 55 between Thursday and Friday, raising concerns about the government's ability to control the crisis.

"The way Abe has been tackling this public health challenge offers little reassurance," said the left-leaning Asahi newspaper in an editorial published on Thursday.

"We feel compelled to describe Abe's policy responses to the situation as miserably confused, even if we acknowledge the treacherous nature of the crisis," it added. "It is essential for the government to develop and explain well-tailored plans to combat the epidemic based on opinions of experts " not just in infectious diseases, but also in areas such as law, economy, education and social security."

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics is slated to go on despite the coronavirus outbreak. Reuters

One area of particular concern in Japan is the number of tests for the virus that have been carried out by health authorities. While South Korea has tested some 140,000 people, Japan had conducted a mere 8,111 tests as of March 4, despite the health ministry saying it had the capacity to carry out about 3,800 tests a day.

Those figures have sparked speculation that Japan is limiting its testing regime to give the impression that infection figures are still relatively low, and to avoid raising alarm ahead of the opening of the Tokyo Olympic Games in late July.

The Japanese government, the International Olympic Committee and the city of Tokyo have all gone to great lengths to play down suggestions that the Games are at risk of being either cancelled or postponed until later in the year, if the outbreak is not brought under control in the coming weeks. One former IOC member has suggested that a final decision must be made by the end of May on whether to go ahead with the Olympics or to cancel them.

The Japanese government has invested heavily in making sure that the Games will run smoothly and act as a showcase for the nation's already booming tourism industry.

Passengers arrive at Tokyo International Airport at Haneda on March 6, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE

Jun Okumura, an analyst at the Meiji Institute for Global Affairs, believes Abe is acting "decisively" now because the original response to the crisis fell short.

"It very much appears that the scale of this thing caught the administration by surprise," Okumura said. "And given the level of concern in every part of society now, I think he had to be seen to be acting decisively.

"I think there has been a lot of criticism of the initial response, such as to the handling of the Diamond Princess situation, and now people are saying that every new case is attributable to those early policies and decisions," he said.

On Thursday, the government also announced that airlines carrying passengers from China, South Korea, Hong Kong and Macau could only use two airports, Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Kansai airport, which serves Osaka.

The authorities intend to concentrate arrivals in two areas to more effectively monitor their health and cut the need to have quarantine officials at multiple airports.

At least 13 regional airports have already cancelled flights from China amid dwindling passenger numbers, while the new travel restrictions will further depress demand, meaning it is unlikely that additional slots at Narita and Kansai airports will have to be allocated to flights from affected areas.

China on Thursday indicated that it understood and accepted Japan's new regulations, with a foreign ministry official saying at a press briefing in Beijing: "Both China and Japan should take appropriate actions based on the spread of the virus."

The Beijing city government earlier this week introduced a 14-day quarantine period for anyone arriving from Japan or South Korea.

Tourists seen face masks at the Sensoji temple in Tokyo. Photo: Reuters

Meanwhile, the announcement in Tokyo ended the faint hopes Takako Tomura had of visiting South Korea with a group of friends and their families to celebrate their children's graduation from junior high school.

"We began making plans in mid-December and had been really looking forward to the trip," she said. "It was only for three days at the end of March, but there were lots of places we were planning to take the children. But now this has happened.

"I had been hoping that the virus would fade away and that everything would be back to normal by the time we were going," Tomura said.

"But now the government has said that we would all have to go into quarantine for two weeks when we came back, it's just impossible," she said. "It's so disappointing."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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