Japan in the wake of Corona Virus?

Yeah I'm only going to TDR myself. I've been to Japan twice before. This would be my first time going alone. First time was with a tour group led by a Japanese-American who spoke Japanese, second time was with my half-Japanese husband who is fluent in Japanese. I don't want to risk going to Japan, possibly getting sick and going to the hospital by myself when I know only very rudimentary Japanese. My husband has a couple friends and relatives in Japan who are bilingual, but it's not something we want to count on in an emergency situation (I only met his cousin once and never even met his friend). It's a lot different than if the virus were to come here to the US, where I know the language and I'm in a familiar place.

I will go if the number of new cases go down significantly, but it seems to be trending upwards and I don't think the government or Japanese public are taking it seriously enough. Japan now has the most cases of any country other than China, tied with Singapore. Singapore was #2 for a while but Japan caught up today. This doesn't include the Diamond Princess. HK has fewer cases than Japan and yet HKDL is still closed.

To put this in perspective, Singapore has a population of just over 5 million and Hong Kong has a population of just over 7 million while Japan has over 126 million people. Population density is higher in Singapore and Hong Kong than Tokyo making spread of virus in these two places a much bigger problem. HKDL also gets more mainland Chinese guests than Tokyo Disneyland.

I agree that Japan should be doing more such as banning visitors from mainland China but some companies have already been cancelling events and taking precautions. There's already no face character greetings for Tokyo Disneyland.

I'm still waiting till closer to the travel dates to decide if I should cancel my trip to TDR at the end of May.
 
To put this in perspective, Singapore has a population of just over 5 million and Hong Kong has a population of just over 7 million while Japan has over 126 million people. Population density is higher in Singapore and Hong Kong than Tokyo making spread of virus in these two places a much bigger problem. HKDL also gets more mainland Chinese guests than Tokyo Disneyland.
Yeah I understand that, as I actually looked up the populations myself the other day, but I am still very worried.
 
To put this in perspective, Singapore has a population of just over 5 million and Hong Kong has a population of just over 7 million while Japan has over 126 million people. Population density is higher in Singapore and Hong Kong than Tokyo making spread of virus in these two places a much bigger problem. HKDL also gets more mainland Chinese guests than Tokyo Disneyland.

I agree that Japan should be doing more such as banning visitors from mainland China but some companies have already been cancelling events and taking precautions. There's already no face character greetings for Tokyo Disneyland.

I'm still waiting till closer to the travel dates to decide if I should cancel my trip to TDR at the end of May.

For me, it is the behavior of the Japanese government in regards to the cruise ship that is the most troublesome sign that things will unravel very quickly over there...and I don't want to find myself there in the middle of that.
 


Well, the CDC has issued a level 1 travel advisory for Japan, same as HK. I’m like 99% sure I’m canceling now.

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/watch/coronavirus-japan
Well, the CDC isn't recommending cancellation yet.
"At this time, CDC does not recommend canceling or postponing travel to Japan. If you travel to Japan, take the following steps:

  • Avoid contact with sick people.
  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.
  • Clean your hands often by washing them with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at 60%–95% alcohol. Soap and water should be used if hands are visibly dirty.
    • It is especially important to clean hands after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after coughing, sneezing or blowing your nose."
BUT... as a solo trip you may be able to fit in a replacement trip later easier, and it's only you that are affected, so you need to do what makes YOU comfortable. I completely understand! And I'm still watching and waiting myself. I haven't taken any steps to cancel our June trip. I'm continuing to study my kanji. And I'm watching for better hotel deals. At the same time, I am on hold on scheduling other activities and buying tickets for activities. And not tearing my hair out ... yet. :)
 


Well, the CDC isn't recommending cancellation yet.
"At this time, CDC does not recommend canceling or postponing travel to Japan. If you travel to Japan, take the following steps:

  • Avoid contact with sick people.
  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.
  • Clean your hands often by washing them with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at 60%–95% alcohol. Soap and water should be used if hands are visibly dirty.
    • It is especially important to clean hands after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after coughing, sneezing or blowing your nose."
BUT... as a solo trip you may be able to fit in a replacement trip later easier, and it's only you that are affected, so you need to do what makes YOU comfortable. I completely understand! And I'm still watching and waiting myself. I haven't taken any steps to cancel our June trip. I'm continuing to study my kanji. And I'm watching for better hotel deals. At the same time, I am on hold on scheduling other activities and buying tickets for activities. And not tearing my hair out ... yet. :)
Right, they aren’t suggesting cancellation, but the fact that there is an advisory at all is significant to me.
 
Right, they aren’t suggesting cancellation, but the fact that there is an advisory at all is significant to me.

I agree. I expect the advisories to increase in intensity in a short amount of time. Definitely making peace with the fact that we may cancel our May trip. There is already known community transmission in Japan, which is not a good sign. 12 new cases (unrelated to the cruise ship) confirmed yesterday.
 
We're wanting to take our son next year in May (he'll be around 1). The plane tickets we want will be showing this June so I'm really hoping they have some idea of when this will be better under control.
 
To put this in perspective, Singapore has a population of just over 5 million and Hong Kong has a population of just over 7 million while Japan has over 126 million people. Population density is higher in Singapore and Hong Kong than Tokyo making spread of virus in these two places a much bigger problem.
While technically true, you're using stats that are not supportive of your claim. Tokyo is not less dense than Hong Kong or Singapore. Tokyo alone has over 37 million people. Most of the 37 million are in the centralized areas of Tokyo and has a population density double that of Hong Kong (about 7k/km2) or Singapore (about 8k/km2) at over 15k/km2 on average (some places like Shinjuku at over 18k/km2 balanced by other places with lower density). Tokyo is one of the densest cities in Asia. Japan statistics can be deceiving because there are many mountainous areas that can factor into the equation (despite the fact that no one can actually live there).
 
We're wanting to take our son next year in May (he'll be around 1). The plane tickets we want will be showing this June so I'm really hoping they have some idea of when this will be better under control.

This is completely off-topic, but I wanted to let you and others who are travelling with children know that you should always carry your baby's passport with you at all time. Besides being the law, we found that we were required to present my kids' passports multiple times in Nov 2019. We had to show their ID to enter the TSMM, Pooh, and other popular attraction FP lines to prove they were not required to have park admission and thus a FP. My son was 17 months, 2nd percentile for weight, 7th for height - he's TINY and was wearing 6-12 months pants. Nobody would ever mistake him for a 4 year old! We didn't have to show our daughter's passport when we took her to TDR in 2017 so maybe it's a new policy?
 
This is completely off-topic, but I wanted to let you and others who are travelling with children know that you should always carry your baby's passport with you at all time. Besides being the law, we found that we were required to present my kids' passports multiple times in Nov 2019. We had to show their ID to enter the TSMM, Pooh, and other popular attraction FP lines to prove they were not required to have park admission and thus a FP. My son was 17 months, 2nd percentile for weight, 7th for height - he's TINY and was wearing 6-12 months pants. Nobody would ever mistake him for a 4 year old! We didn't have to show our daughter's passport when we took her to TDR in 2017 so maybe it's a new policy?
Wow! I would’ve never guessed that would happen. Good tip!
 
While technically true, you're using stats that are not supportive of your claim. Tokyo is not less dense than Hong Kong or Singapore. Tokyo alone has over 37 million people. Most of the 37 million are in the centralized areas of Tokyo and has a population density double that of Hong Kong (about 7k/km2) or Singapore (about 8k/km2) at over 15k/km2 on average (some places like Shinjuku at over 18k/km2 balanced by other places with lower density). Tokyo is one of the densest cities in Asia. Japan statistics can be deceiving because there are many mountainous areas that can factor into the equation (despite the fact that no one can actually live there).

If you're only comparing the densest urban areas, Hong Kong has higher density than Tokyo. Mong Kok has 130K people per square kilometer and the densest few districts in Hong Kong have over 40K people per square kilometer. Using this metric, busy areas in Tokyo probably come out denser than busy areas in Singapore though.

So far two people from the Diamond Princess have died. But it's actually more concerning that patients from the ship are being sent to hospitals in East Chiba and Nagoya because presumably, the hospitals near Tokyo and Yokohama are out of isolation wards. If Japan learned their lesson from this ship, hopefully, they'll do more to keep the domestic outbreak under control.

I'm also watching how countries treat Korea which had the massive outbreak. If other countries start banning travel from Korea, they'll likely do the same if a sudden large outbreak happened in Japan. That makes traveling to Japan riskier because if there was a sudden outbreak, you could get trapped.
 
I'm also watching how countries treat Korea which had the massive outbreak. If other countries start banning travel from Korea, they'll likely do the same if a sudden large outbreak happened in Japan. That makes traveling to Japan riskier because if there was a sudden outbreak, you could get trapped.
If this hasn’t been mentioned already enrolling with STEP is definitely worth doing.
https://step.state.gov/STEPMobile/Default.aspx
 
If you're only comparing the densest urban areas, Hong Kong has higher density than Tokyo. Mong Kok has 130K people per square kilometer and the densest few districts in Hong Kong have over 40K people per square kilometer. Using this metric, busy areas in Tokyo probably come out denser than busy areas in Singapore though.

So far two people from the Diamond Princess have died. But it's actually more concerning that patients from the ship are being sent to hospitals in East Chiba and Nagoya because presumably, the hospitals near Tokyo and Yokohama are out of isolation wards. If Japan learned their lesson from this ship, hopefully, they'll do more to keep the domestic outbreak under control.

I'm also watching how countries treat Korea which had the massive outbreak. If other countries start banning travel from Korea, they'll likely do the same if a sudden large outbreak happened in Japan. That makes traveling to Japan riskier because if there was a sudden outbreak, you could get trapped.

This whole situation is stressing me out. My husband is living and working in Okinawa right now. He is scheduled to be in S Korea for two weeks in early March (work). He has a flight booked for late March to come home and visit us. I'm worried the US will force quarantine people who were recently in S Korea or Japan (his flight home connects through Tokyo). On a similar note, I definitely don't want him coming home if he has been exposed to this virus. But we haven't seen him since Christmas and his time away has been quite hard on all of us. Ugh. Stupid virus!
 
The unknown of COVID-19 is the most worrisome thing right now. Last I heard there have been three deaths attributed to the virus outside of China. Comparatively there are tens of thousands of deaths each year from influenza A/B in the US alone, some years the rates being within a few tenths of a percent of being considered a pandemic. Since influenza deaths hold steady year to year it doesn’t get the attention of the “what if?” associated with COVID-19. Hopefully the medical science experts will get it figured out soon!
 

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