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A street in Tokyo’s Ginza District. (Yonhap News)

The entry restrictions that the Japanese government is placing on travelers arriving from South Korea and China, including Japanese citizens, took effect on Mar. 9. The abrupt decision by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is causing confusion at Haneda Airport in Tokyo and other sites.

It was the morning of Mar. 4, the day before the announcement, that Abe told aides he would be tightening entry restrictions on people arriving from South Korea and China, Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported on Mar. 7. On the morning of Mar. 5, the Japanese government convoked senior officials at the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry; and the Immigration Services Agency of Japan, with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kazuhiro Sugita presiding. The original measure proposed by the Office of the Prime Minister was to issue landing permits on a conditional basis and to ask visitors from South Korea and China to stay at a certain location for two weeks under the Quarantine Act.

But the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW), the government agency responsible for combatting the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, was hesitant to apply that act. According to the newspaper, the MHLW’s opposition was based on the fact that, under the Quarantine Act, self-quarantine and conditional landing permits are limited to individuals suspected of being infected. The MHLW thought that it would be unreasonable to treat everyone arriving from South Korea and China as if they were suspected of having the disease. In the end, Japan’s National Security Council, which was convened that evening, made the ambiguous announcement that it was asking visitors to “wait” for 14 days on a voluntary basis, without resorting to the Quarantine Act.

This decision was handed down without adequate deliberations with people on the ground, catching Japanese government ministries off guard and leaving them unable to provide meaningful answers or take effective action. During an informational session for the Japanese press that same evening, the MHLW was peppered with questions about whether the measures also applied to Japanese citizens, whether they were compulsory and what their legal basis was. But the MHLW didn’t have clear answers to these questions, according to the Sankei Shimbun, only remarking that “it didn’t have any information to provide” and that it was “deliberating about how to respond, following instructions from the prime minister.”

Tokyo’s measures also suspend the visa-free entry program for South Korea, Hong Kong, and Macao and revoke previously issued visas. But it wasn’t until the evening of Mar. 5 and the early morning of Mar. 6 that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted explanations about the visa restrictions on its website. While Tokyo had also decided to limit international traffic to Narita Airport and Kansai Airport, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism didn’t inform airlines of that on the evening of Mar. 5 and waited until the morning of Mar. 6 to ask South Korean and Chinese airlines to change their flight plans.

A day later, the MHLW had to revise a Q&A about the measures it had posted to its official website. On Mar. 6, the MHLW had said that people departing from South Korea and China but passing through a third country before entering Japan would be exempt from the two-week waiting period, but on Mar. 7 it said that such travelers would in fact be subject to the same restrictions.

“These measures weren’t reviewed during a meeting of experts convened by the Japanese government,” admitted Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.

The chaos inside the Abe administration is also evident at airports. A number of Korean students were spotted arriving at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Mar. 8, slipping in before the entry restrictions go into place after midnight on Mar. 9. The entire burden of the “waiting period” is being placed on travelers, who have to reserve their lodgings and pay their bill themselves. The Japanese government justified this on the grounds that the waiting period is neither compulsory nor based on the country’s Quarantine Act. Even Japanese who were in South Korea or China were taken aback at how suddenly these measures, which amount to self-quarantine, were adopted.

On Mar. 6, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs elevated its travel advisory to level three for Bonghwa County in North Gyeongsang Province, recommending that Japanese avoid visiting the area. The county is the latest area to be placed under the advisory, following the city of Daegu and eight other areas in North Gyeongsang Province.

By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]