Why Japanese People DON'T WANT Foreigners to come back to Japan

I have some bad news. Japan doesn't want

foreigners to come back. It's sad, but

So as many of you know, Japan has been

closed for nearly 3 years because of

COVID-19, and no tourists can enter the

country. And as someone who likes to go to

Japan on nearly a yearly basis ever since

2010, this has made me feel a little bit

annoyed. And before anyone starts saying

in the comments that Japan is open just

because they saw a few famous YouTubers

enter the country and move there, it's not

open to tourists. Japan hasn't been open

for tourists since the beginning of 2020,

and these really big YouTubers who have

recently moved to Japan have only managed

to get into Japan because they managed to

get some kind of visa and they've got

millions of dollars or pounds and they're

able to start their own businesses and

employ people and sponsor themselves for a

business visa, or maybe they have

connections to some kind of massive social

media company that's helped them sponsor

for some kind of entrepreneur visa.

Unfortunately, I'm not famous or rich

enough to be able to get a visa in the

same way, and most of us normal people

won't be able to get into Japan unless we

have some kind of special visa. And to be

honest, I do feel pretty jealous and

pretty annoyed that certain famous

YouTubers get a free invite and a free

pass to enter Japan just because they're

famous enough. And there's this massive

company, I think they're called Geeks+ or

something, and They're basically run by

foreigners who just pick and choose any

kind of big YouTuber or content creator

that they want to add to their team, to

their brand, and they just go, hey, do you

want to come to Japan? We'll sponsor you

for a visa. You don't have to do anything.

Just give us a cut of your ad revenue. I

think that's so lame and they shouldn't be

able to do that. It just doesn't make any

sense why this foreign-run company, this

social media company, gets to choose who

can enter and come into Japan just because

they've got enough followers or a big

enough sub count and a big enough channel.

And people like me, we're stuck here in

our own country still waiting for Japan to

open up to foreigners, but they're not.

And I just find myself sitting here

scratching my head wondering, why doesn't

Japan reopen to tourists yet? Yeah,

they've reopened to tourists in the form

of these guided package tours, which

absolutely no one is interested in. I

mean, why would you want to go to Japan

just for 2 weeks and then go on some kind

of guided tour and you gotta follow around

this person and you're not allowed to do

this, not allowed to do that? You can't

even break free from the group and go and

explore by yourself. That's just so lame.

And the only reason why Japan is enforcing

these guided package tours is because they

don't trust us foreigners to follow their

very strict COVID-19 laws, such as wearing

a face mask at all times, even outside in

public. It's something that's happening in

Japan still. They want us to be

accompanied with a tour guide at all times

to make sure we're following the rules and

wearing the face mask and not coughing and

sneezing all over the place. I just find

it so hypocritical that the Japanese

government thinks that foreigners,

foreign tourists coming into Japan, is

such a massive risk and we can't be

trusted on our own to explore Japan

without a tour guide, but they think that

their own people, Japanese people, it's

perfectly okay for them to fly overseas

and go on holiday to other countries,

other foreign countries, and then fly back

and come back into Japan, potentially

bringing in some kind of thing that could

be dangerous. I was in Malaysia a few

months ago and I was walking around the

streets of Georgetown and I heard a

Japanese couple speaking in Japanese and

they were taking photos and taking selfies

and having a great time. And I just felt

so annoyed. I thought, how come you're

allowed to come here to Malaysia, come on

holiday and have a great time, but your

country isn't letting me or other foreign

tourists come into your country and have a

great time, don't you feel like that's a

little bit unfair? I think if Japan

doesn't want to play things fairly, then

why should we? I think we should start

banning Japanese tourists from coming into

our countries if they refuse to let us go

to their country as a tourist. It just

makes no logical sense that they let in

some foreigners if they have a special

visa or some kind of business visa, and

they're happy to let their own Japanese

people fly in and out of the country

whenever and wherever they like, they

think it's a massive risk and a massive

danger if they let foreign tourists come

in en masse. So many countries have

already reopened for tourism, like

Thailand and Italy and Greece and Rome.

And I was even traveling all the way back

in 2020 after the first lockdowns

happened. I went to Germany and I went to

the Netherlands without any problems at

all back in 2020. And now it's 2022,

nearly 3 years later, and Japan still

refuses to reopen for tourists. This is

just unacceptable. And the sad truth is

Japan just doesn't really care that much

about having foreigners come to their

country. They don't really rely that

heavily on tourism. They don't make a huge

amount of money from tourism. Sure, they

might make a couple billion dollars every

year, but that's just a splash in the

bucket compared to everything else.

They're not like Thailand or Greece or

Italy or some other country that relies on

masses of tourists coming to help boost

their economy. And the truth is, the

average Japanese person really doesn't

give a damn about foreigners. 99% of

Japanese people don't have any foreigner

friends. And they couldn't care less about

the outside world outside of Japan. Sure,

there's like the exception, a very small

percentage of Japanese people who love

foreigners and want to learn English and

love traveling and have loads of foreign

boyfriends and all that stuff. But that's

an extremely tiny percentage of the entire

Japanese population. The majority of the

Japanese population are old people, and

old people don't like foreigners. They

just want the country to be safe and

secure and be just full of Japanese people

who are quiet and law-abiding and peaceful

and reserved. They don't want hordes of

foreigners and Westerners and Chinese

people coming into the country and

crapping the place up. Unfortunately, I

think we can safely say that Japan's

decision to be very strict on the borders

and not letting tourists in hasn't really

been based on scientific or logical

reasonings, and it's probably mostly

political. So recently in Japan, I think

sometime around July, they had a massive

election for the Prime Minister, and the

leading party who is winning and who won,

the majority of their supporters and the

majority of people who vote in these

elections are probably old people,

probably over 40s, over 50s, who are

probably very traditional and kind of

conservative, and they would rather things

be safe and lock down the country and not

spread David-19. And they're probably very

happy and probably very insistent that

Japan continues with being strict on the

borders. I would even go as far as to say

that the everyday average Japanese person

is a lot happier that there's much less,

much fewer tourists and foreigners in

their country now. And they probably think

it's a good idea to have less foreigners

and tourists because they've obviously

supported the government's decision to

keep things locked down and strict.

Otherwise, you'd see millions of Japanese

people protesting, saying reopen the

borders to foreigners, we want them back

because we miss them. But no, that's not

happening at all, and this is just a

blatant display of Japan's deep-rooted

xenophobia. They never needed us, they

never actually cared about us. Do you

think 50-year-old Tanaka-san who works at

Toyota actually is aware or cares that

there's hordes of Westerners who are

obsessed with anime and the weeb lifestyle

and we want to get Japanese girlfriends,

and we love Japanese culture and

everything Japanese. Can you imagine the

everyday Japanese person's reaction if

they found out that there's an army of

Westerners foaming at the mouth at the

idea of being able to get back into Japan?

If Japanese people were even aware of the

West's unhealthy obsession with Japan,

they'd probably petition to keep the

country closed down to tourists for good.

And I think the sad truth is, at the end

of the day, it's blatantly obvious that

Japan just doesn't want us back. They

don't like us, they don't need us, they

don't care about us. It's just really

frustrating that we have to accept that

the Japanese government can do whatever

they like, and even if we really want to

get back into Japan, they can just close

their borders whenever and however and

forever long as they like, and there's not

a damn thing we can do about it. We can

cry and whine about it for as much as we

want, but at the end of the day, it

doesn't really change anything. And the

tragic thing is, even though they've had

probably some of the most strictest border

controls during this whole situation

compared to any other country, they still

haven't really got the lowest amount of

cases. Other countries that have been open

to tourism and they've still got lower

cases than Japan does. So this whole

keeping the borders locked down and being

really strict about foreigners entering as

tourists doesn't really make any sense and

hasn't really made much of a difference

anyway. Some people are saying maybe end

of 2022 they will reopen to tourists, but

I still don't see it happening. I reckon

maybe early 2023 or maybe mid-2023

they might start reopening to tourists,

but they're going to reduce the amount of

people that can enter. Maybe they'll have

a limit like 5,000 people per month, and

then they'll gradually increase that until

the end of 2023. Maybe 2024 they'll fully

reopen like how it used to be

pre-you-know-what, but I wouldn't get my

hopes up. It's just been so frustrating

and annoying not being able to get back

into Japan. I've had to completely replan

my entire life and rethink what I want to

do in life and just put all of my other

ideas on hold because the Japanese

government are stupid.