Japan lifting Covid travel restrictions

[ncgolferette]

Japan will lift all Covid travel restrictions on May 8.  Covid will now fall into Japan’s category 2 for illnesses.  This includes the common cold and the flu.  Great news for those planning cruises to Japan and/or Asia.

[OlsSalt]

Switzerland is no longer even recommending the covid injections, unless patient and doctor confirm there is a sufficient special risk.

 

The past few years have certainly been one for the record books - cruise industry wise.

[les37b]

Annoyingly we fly to Japan in just over a weeks time. No test needed to enter, but need to test prior to boarding and also daily temperature checks. No self serve on the ship anywhere. We depart Japanese waters on the 4th May….. Just slightly too late for this good news.

[BruceMuzz]

Japan does not require a COVID test for cruise passengers prior to boarding a ship. But many cruise lines sailing in Japan have decided to require it to protect themselves. If a cruise ship sailing in Japanese Waters has more than 10% of pax and crew with COVID, the ship will be forced to leave Japan. Currently, most big mass market ships are exceeding 10% infection rates. If a big ship is forced out of Japan, the logistics of re-booking air tickets for all passengers would be a financial and logistical nightmare. The cruise lines are trying to avoid this by screening potential health risk passengers before sailing.

[les37b]

8 hours ago, BruceMuzz said:

Japan does not require a COVID test for cruise passengers prior to boarding a ship. But many cruise lines sailing in Japan have decided to require it to protect themselves. If a cruise ship sailing in Japanese Waters has more than 10% of pax and crew with COVID, the ship will be forced to leave Japan. Currently, most big mass market ships are exceeding 10% infection rates. If a big ship is forced out of Japan, the logistics of re-booking air tickets for all passengers would be a financial and logistical nightmare. The cruise lines are trying to avoid this by screening potential health risk passengers before sailing.

Indeed, I jumped to this same conclusion and suggested the same a week or so ago on CC.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2928097-muse-cruise-japan-questions-anyone-on-board-now-or-about-to-sail/?do=findComment&comment=65148639

 

I guess I don’t blame them, but would be devastated if this stopped us boarding in just over a weeks time.

 

 

[austromyrtus]

les37b, out of interest, which ship are you sailing on?

[Hlitner]

Just to make it clear, there are essentially no COVID restrictions in Japan (other than the requirement to either be vaccinated with 3 jabs OR have a negative COVID test).  For practical purposes, nearly all the restrictions melted away in early March.  We have been in Japan since March 16 (in Kochi at the moment) and have seen zero restrictions.  That being said, a large majority of Japanese do continue to wear masks (they are not mandated) and some very rare private facilities still have their own mask mandates (we have seen this in one store in the past month).  

 

There are still some requirements for cruise ships and whether the May 8 changes impact cruises remains to be seen.  Most (if not all) cruise ships try to have some kind of onboard mask mandate which we think is more out of fear of the Japanese 10% dictate (ships might be prevented from docking if more than 10% of souls onboard have COVID).  On our ship (HAL's Westerdam) there is a requirement to wear masks onboard, when indoors (unless eating or drinking).  Nearly all the passengers on our ship do follow the "rule" although we have seen no attempt to enforce the rules on those who are lax.

 

Hank

[skurvish]

To follow up on 2 points, the Covid test requirements for HAL can be a self administered antigen test so if you fail just borrow someone else's. I too am on the same sailing at Hank above. We started a new 14 day segment last Monday and the makeup of the passengers has changed significantly. It feels that we have significantly more Americans than the previous 2 weeks. It also seems that a lot more passengers are being lax. I am not suggesting a correlation, just an observation.

[alc13]

13 hours ago, BruceMuzz said:

Currently, most big mass market ships are exceeding 10% infection rates. 

That is staggeringly high, especially compared to the US currently (where I live) and Japan (where we're going).  Apparently our exposure risk will be higher on board than off.  Frustrating.

[les37b]

17 hours ago, austromyrtus said:

les37b, out of interest, which ship are you sailing on?

Silver Muse from Osaka to Seward.

 

17 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Just to make it clear, there are essentially no COVID restrictions in Japan (other than the requirement to either be vaccinated with 3 jabs OR have a negative COVID test).  For practical purposes, nearly all the restrictions melted away in early March.  We have been in Japan since March 16 (in Kochi at the moment) and have seen zero restrictions.  That being said, a large majority of Japanese do continue to wear masks (they are not mandated) and some very rare private facilities still have their own mask mandates (we have seen this in one store in the past month).  

 

There are still some requirements for cruise ships and whether the May 8 changes impact cruises remains to be seen.  Most (if not all) cruise ships try to have some kind of onboard mask mandate which we think is more out of fear of the Japanese 10% dictate (ships might be prevented from docking if more than 10% of souls onboard have COVID).  On our ship (HAL's Westerdam) there is a requirement to wear masks onboard, when indoors (unless eating or drinking).  Nearly all the passengers on our ship do follow the "rule" although we have seen no attempt to enforce the rules on those who are lax.

 

Hank

 

Agree, nothing has been mentioned for cruising specifically from Japan after May 8th, but logically if Covid has been downgraded to be the same as a cold, then I can’t think they’d upgrade it on the sea and a  cruise will get cancelled for more than 10% having a cold. 
 

I’m told that currently on the ship I join in just over a weeks time, on top of the boarding test, daly temperature checks are required and also no self serve food. Mask wearing is also recommended on inside locations. These “rules” are the same as on a sailing we did in Jan 2022 in South America - but without the needed PCR on each new country. Unfortunately my wife caught Covid on that voyage and was in the “red zone quarantine for 10 days. To have got off as scheduled in Guayaquil, she’d only done 6 days, was already fine with an antigen, but failed the PCR. (She literally had absolutely zero symptoms). Ecuador insisted she’d have to spend a further 14 days locked up. (So 20 days for not even a runny nose, temperature or cough!) I’m glad those days are behind us! That said, there are worse places to be confined to your suite that a luxury cruise ship! Ironically, after I was excluded for 48 hours, I had the run of the ship, but kept a very low profile for fear of a further extension. Our 16 night cruise was extended to 25 and we did have the option to stay on until Montevideo (so 42 nights) but since Chile had Al but shut down and Argentina and Brazil were completely blocked, that many sea days wasn’t so appealing! 
 

 

 

 

Edited April 14, 2023 by les37b

[floralscent]

Not sure why but I am a bit confused and hope someone can set me straight. 
 

I think people are saying that Japan doesn’t have a testing policy to fly US to Japan, regardless of vaccination status, but the cruise lines do. Is that correct?

 

Is there random testing onboard when in Japan and/or does everyone have to test before getting off at a stop?

Is masking required on celebrity ships?

 

Sounds like there is a 10% Covid rule and for crew/passengers. If true and that number is reached, are you saying the ship just sits in the water until that number reduces or the cruise is over? If yes, has this actually happened? 
 

We are sailing on Celebrity Millie 10/24/23 and I’m nervous about going and possibly losing out on a vacay due to circumstances out of my control. Sounds like we could be covid free and still not see Japan if we are at 10% ship-wide. 
 

Since we still have time to cancel, I would love to hear some real life experiences.

I greatly appreciate this network of people…thanks for sharing your experiences. 

[BruceMuzz]

Good morning from sunny Tokyo.

 

As of 01 May, Japan does not require COVID treat results for tourists to enter - so long as you have proof of at least 3 COVID vaccinations.

Random onboard testing is not required by Japan, but might be required by the cruise line.

Japan currently does not require testing to go ashore.

 

The 10% rule requires any cruise ship reporting over 10% infections to leave Japan immediately. This would create a financial and logistical nightmare for the cruise line, as there are few viable optional ports to call at. The cost alone of changing every passenger’s air tickets would be enormous.

The Japan cruise season has just started, so there have been very few foreign cruise ships in Japan so far.

If you look at mass market ships in other parts of the world, many are regularly reporting 10% or more infection rates. You can then understand why the mass market ships calling at Japanese ports are being so careful.

 

Japan was doing quite well with COVID generally - until the tourists started returning. Now the numbers are going up again. The Japanese Government plans to relax the rules next week - but that could change due to the higher numbers.

[floridatravelersforlife]

To protect ourselves from a Covid surprise, my strategy is to fly to Tokyo from LAX, arriving the night before Embarkation.  We can do the Covid Test in LAX before we commit to the flight and comply with the 72 hour rule.  We are flying the day before from MCO to LAX, so we can do a self check Covid test before we start the trip.  Thus we are forgoing a less costly one stop flight