Olympics in Japan postponed a year.

[helenk]

I wonder what that means for the ABD trips to Japan that are scheduled for June and July?

 

[sayhello]

From what I hear, Japan itself is not having large issues with the corona virus. The concern with the Olympics is having all those athletes from all over the world in close quarters, interacting with each other, plus all the spectators from all over the world. Chances are reasonable that travel to Japan will be OK by then (or at least by July?) No-one can tell for sure, but I don't think the postponement of the Olympics effects that.

Sayhello

 

[helenk]

That makes sense. I had read that the number of coronavirus cases being reported in Japan could be incorrect due to Japan not wanting to cancel the games, but that could be untrue. My daughter and I are booked for the July 5th tour. So fingers crossed

 

[TravelJunkieHubby]

We ended up switching Greece ABD to Japan ABD last fall and are booked on the June 7th tour - wondering when ABD will make a decision? Anyone else scheduled to go in June? If so what are you guys thinking? Right now we are hoping ABD cancels.

 

[sayhello]

That makes sense. I had read that the number of coronavirus cases being reported in Japan could be incorrect due to Japan not wanting to cancel the games, but that could be untrue. My daughter and I are booked for the July 5th tour. So fingers crossed

I have friends in Japan who say there's no lockdown there, and everything is relatively normal (as normal as it can be). I suppose the government could be hiding it from everyone, but my friends are in populous areas (one friend is in Tokyo), and I just don't know how you could hide that.

Sayhello

 

[a1tinkfans]

Delay is good news

 

[sayhello]

Delay is good news

Way better than Cancel!

Sayhello

 

[Brett Wyman]

Japan's handling of the virus spread is pretty amazing. Kudos to them.

 

[Calfan]

I think the other reason for the cancellation is the concern by the athletes themselves that they don't have the opportunity to train adequately, and many qualifying events can'ts take place. I read that both USA Swimming and Track & Field had lobbied for a postponement.

 

[Eastridge]

ABD has already cancelled the April and May Japan trips, but they will have to cancel more.

• The US State Dept. issued a level 4 "Do Not Travel" advisory (the highest level) covering the entire world
• Japan is imposing a 14 day quarantine on visitors from the US
• Japan will be blocking visitors from many European countries. I expect they will soon add the US to that list.

Furthermore, flying there and back is becoming difficult. We can't connect through Canada, South Korea, China, or Hong Kong. Since Hawaii is imposing a 14 day quarantine, Hawaiian airlines is shutting down flights and that cuts off the route to Japan via Honolulu.

I can't believe ABD wants to risk sending out another tour group that gets stranded because of the rapidly changing restrictions and flight cancellations. They already got burned by proceeding with the recent England/France and Australia groups.

 

[Angie_Ohio]

My son and I have a 2 week trip planned beginning July 13-July 26. We had tickets for Olympic soccer. Should we hang on and visit since our main focus was not Olympics or reschedule for next summer? This is our dilemma currently.

 

[Coaster629]

Hello, Japan local here! Things change day to day, but basically everyone is going about their daily lives. No lockdowns or anything, but there are rumors that there may be one for Tokyo soon. Cases are low, whether the government hid it or not, but for it being exposed here for about a couple months already, the numbers here are pretty low. It may be due to how people here really don’t touch eachother often by handshakes or hugs, people already are used to wearing masks daily, or just the culture difference.

It is good to see they are putting off the Olympics, but it does hurt things, as there has been construction all over Tokyo and the surrounding areas to prepare for it.I hope this delay won’t further affect things like taxes and such.Tourism has been a problem, so I hope this doesn’t cause permanent damage. We will see!

 

[helenk]

We haven't booked our airfare yet, with things fluctuating every day we decided to hold off. If it gets cancelled we would re-book for next year. This trip is my retirement gift to myself but then I decided to work until the end of this year. But whatever happens we will just roll with it.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Hello, Japan local here! Things change day to day, but basically everyone is going about their daily lives. No lockdowns or anything, but there are rumors that there may be one for Tokyo soon. Cases are low, whether the government hid it or not, but for it being exposed here for about a couple months already, the numbers here are pretty low. It may be due to how people here really don’t touch eachother often by handshakes or hugs, people already are used to wearing masks daily, or just the culture difference.

It is good to see they are putting off the Olympics, but it does hurt things, as there has been construction all over Tokyo and the surrounding areas to prepare for it.I hope this delay won’t further affect things like taxes and such.Tourism has been a problem, so I hope this doesn’t cause permanent damage. We will see!

Thanks so much for chiming in! I've been very curious to what is happening on the ground in Japan. It seemed as if Japan was an early hotspot but then really flattened the curve. The cultural differences are interesting, and I'm sure will be researched in the future (especially as compared to the Italians, which seem to be the opposite). Keep us posted.

 

[bamagoofy]

Tokyo residents have been asked to stay inside this weekend by the mayor. It appears their numbers are going up again? It will be interesting to watch what happens.

 

[TarotFox]

A lot of people were speculating that Japan was avoiding testing for the sake of the Olympics. Now that the Olympics have been postponed...

 

[Coaster629]

Yea. There is a lot on rumor that either the govt hid numbers or proper testing hasn’t been done. I can’t imagine the number of cases here currently rival the US, but it is probably a bit more than recorded.

 

[Eastridge]

News report that Japan will ban entry of people who have been in the US:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/03/30/national/japan-entry-ban-us-china-europe/#.XoO5GG57nyw

 

[Eastridge]

The US Embassy in Tokyo warned US citizens in Japan to return to the US now or risk having to stay in Japan for an indefinite time period.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2...angements-now-unless-ready-stay/#.XokSv257m_U
ABD has to cancel more of the upcoming Japan trips.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I suspect they will wait until the last minute!