Here are the latest COVID-19 updates from Japan and beyond:
<Sept. 7, 2022>
- India's drug regulator has approved what a local vaccine innovator calls the "world's first" intranasal COVID-19 vaccine, restricted for use in emergency situations for those aged 18 years and above.
- Japan's relaxed border measures from Wednesday, including raising a daily cap on arrivals from 20,000 to 50,000, will not translate into a surge of tourists to gun its economy unless they are given greater freedom to travel in the country, industry officials say.
- Japan increased its daily entry cap on arrivals from 20,000 to 50,000 on Wednesday, as the country's tourism sector has been languishing in the face of strict COVID-19 border controls imposed for more than two years.
<Sept. 6, 2022>
- Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday that Japan will shorten the period of isolation for COVID-19 patients to seven days from the current 10 days.
- Household spending increased a real 3.4 percent in July from a year earlier, helped by the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions that prompted a rise in recreational and dining expenditure, government data showed Tuesday, in a fresh sign of a gradual return to normalcy.
<Sept. 2, 2022>
- The Japanese government decided Friday to introduce penalties for major hospitals that fail to provide outpatient care and prepare beds for patients with COVID-19 and other infectious diseases against prearrangements with local governments.
<Sept. 1, 2022>
- The government held an annual disaster drill Thursday, though again scaling it back to prevent the spread of COVID-19, based on the scenario that a massive earthquake originating off Japan's Pacific coast had affected wide areas.
- Pretax profits among nonfinancial Japanese companies jumped 17.6 percent from a year earlier to a record 28.32 trillion yen ($203 billion) in the April-June quarter, government data showed Thursday, boosted by a weak yen and the waning impact of the COVID-19 pandemic despite surging commodity prices.
<Aug. 31, 2022>
- U.S. drug regulators on Wednesday approved two updated formulations of COVID-19 vaccines as booster shots intended to provide increased protection against the currently circulating Omicron variant.
- Japan will raise its daily entry cap on arrivals to 50,000 from the current 20,000 from Sept. 7 in a further easing of strict COVID-19 border controls, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday.
<Aug. 30, 2022>
- The government may start inoculating the public specifically against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus by the end of September, rather than mid-October as originally planned, government sources said Tuesday.
Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - Sept. 3~9
Useful resources for foreign residents and visitors in Japan
- Health ministry call center
COVID-19: 0120-565-653 (toll free)
COVID-19 Vaccines: 0120-761-770 (toll free)
-Interpreters available for English, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; for Thai 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; for Vietnamese 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. - Health ministry's COVID-19 Vaccine Navigation website
https://v-sys.mhlw.go.jp/en/ - AMDA Medical Information Center's "Multilingual Consultation Service"
- Available in Simple Japanese and English, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. Also available in Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese on designated weekdays. Check schedule here.
03-6233-9266 - Tokyo Metropolitan Government's COVID-19 info
https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en/ - Tokyo Metropolitan Government hotline
https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en/contacts
- Available in English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. (including weekends and holidays)
0570-550571
- Available via fax for those with hearing impairments
03-5388-1396 - Japan National Tourism Organization's "Guide for when you are feeling ill"
- Multilingual clinic/hospital search available in English, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese
https://www.jnto.go.jp/emergency/eng/mi_guide.html - JNTO's "Japan Visitor Hotline"
https://www.japan.travel/en/plan/hotline/
- Available in English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese 24 hours a day
050-3816-2787
+81-50-3816-2787 (from overseas)