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

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.

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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.

"We have been happy to see that the government has not changed its health check requirements for people coming into Japan and that the daily limit remains at 20,000 people," she said.

"We had heard that the government was planning to increase that number, but with the number of cases increasing again and everything surrounding the election, we believe a decision has been put off."

The official said Japan Airlines was planning to reopen its Tokyo-Beijing route - with an announcement on when to be made by next week - on the understanding that Japan's government would not be bringing back more stringent virus curbs.

Yuuki Bando, who owns interpretation company Studio Bang-Do and regularly works at travel industry events organised by the government of Kagawa prefecture, said everyone she knows who is connected to the tourism sector is "desperate to welcome foreign visitors back to Japan."

"It has been much too long since foreign travellers were able to come here," she said. "Everyone thinks that the precautions that are already in place are largely effective and people have learned to be careful, so there should not be any problems in welcoming visitors again."

Bando said she had not encountered anyone expressing concerns that outsiders might bring a new variant of the virus to Japan.

"I think people realise that the virus is here already, that mutations are happening here in Japan and that it's no one's fault," she said. "Right now, we just have to learn to live with the situation, take all the right precautions and hope that it just fades away eventually."

Ken Kato, a Tokyo-based businessman, agreed that it was time to move on.

"The general public is no longer afraid of the virus," he said. "People take the right precautions, virtually everyone in Japan has had the vaccines and the boosters and we all still wear masks in public places. Compared to last year - when everyone was frightened because we had no idea how bad things might get - it is a lot more relaxed now."

Kato said he did not think there was "much more that we can do", adding that he thought "the focus now has to switch back to the economy".

"We have to find the right balance," he said. "We must be careful but at the same time, we have to get the economy firing again. And that means opening the country up to foreign travellers with all the right and sensible precautions in place."

"As long as they follow the rules, I'm sure that most Japanese will welcome foreign visitors if they're here spending money and enjoying themselves," Kato added.

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

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