Dear Japan, Do You Even Want Tourists Back?

I’m starting to feel unwelcome.

I mean, I can understand your feelings. Tourists are noisy, they don’t understand Japanese culture, they can be damaging to irreplaceable cultural assets, they can be rude. Keep them out as long as you can. I get it. 

But nearly two-and-a-half years into the pandemic, you are looking less measured and careful, and more downright unfriendly. Keeping out tourists did not keep COVID out of Japan, as case numbers attest. COVID came anyway. So, what is the point of continuing the no-tourists policy? 

It feels like the Tokugawa ‘sakoku’ (closed country) period all over again. From 1639 to 1854 you kept almost the entire world off your shores, sequestering a few Europeans on a tiny, man-made island in Nagasaki, the 18th century version of a quarantine hotel. The world moved on without you for two hundred years. By the time Commodore Perry sailed his black ships into Edo Harbor and threatened to blast your doors down, you had a lot of catching up to do.

I love you guys. I love your culture. I am writing a book about one of your brightest lights, the poet and feminist Yosano Akiko. I want my sisters in the English-speaking world to know about this stubborn, intelligent, iconoclastic lady. Unfortunately, for the past two years I haven’t been able to visit Japan to do critical research, and I have no idea when that will change. I’m starting to ask myself if I should be writing a different book.

It’s not just me. Some students and businesspeople are now squeezing into Japan, but many have been forced to change their plans. Some students will study Chinese instead, or German, or French. All those tourists who wanted to go to Japan in 2022 are making other plans.

I am all for being careful. I am cautious, too. I am vaxxed and double-boosted; I wear my mask while shopping. But it’s not just COVID protocols. Think about refugees from Ukraine. Poland has already accepted more than 2.5 million refugees. The U.S. will be accepting 100,000. Japan has accepted 400. 

According to The Diplomat, recent opinion polls show most Japanese still support the travel ban, so you can’t even blame this on government bureaucrats. It’s you.

True, foreigners look different, and they speak different languages. Their presence impacts your culture. It changes the feel of neighborhoods, it could even make them more dangerous. But foreigners also bring good things – ideas, food, youthful talent, enthusiasm, money.

It’s a mixed bag, I understand. But I miss you.