News On Japan

The latest changes to Japan’s quarantine measures: July 15

Jul 15, 2021 (Japan Times) - As the coronavirus situation continues to evolve worldwide, Japan has again revised its quarantine measures by tightening measures for some arrivals and relaxing them for others.

With the change, which will take effect on Sunday, people traveling from Moscow will be required to spend six days in government-designated facilities as part of the mandatory 14-day quarantine period. Those travelers will also need to undergo tests for COVID-19 upon arrival and on the third and sixth day of their stay. Only those who test negative will be allowed to self-isolate for the remainder of the two-week period in facilities of their choosing.

Currently travelers from several other regions in Russia ーMoscow Oblast, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Republic of Karelia, Saratov Oblast, St. Petersburg ー are required to stay in government-picked facilities for three days. From Sunday, Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, as well as Costa Rica, Dominica and Namibia, will also be covered by this rule, which also requires an additional test for the coronavirus on the third day.

Meanwhile, as the situations in Latvia, Switzerland and Vietnam have begun to stabilize, people arriving from those countries will no longer need to stay in government-designated facilities after entering the country. The change will take effect on Sunday.

However, strict policies with an entry ban on foreign nationals, including residents of Japan, remain in place for India and several neighboring countries and regions where infections with the more transmissible delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 are believed to be rampant.

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Record rainfall caused 19 rivers to overflow across Fukui Prefecture, flooding roads and homes, triggering landslides and temporarily forcing authorities to issue the highest-level heavy rain emergency warning from early Sunday morning.

Drones were used to deliver food and daily necessities to an isolated mountain community in Himi City, Toyama Prefecture, on August 30 after torrential rain triggered a landslide that cut off road access, while volunteers continued flood recovery work in neighboring Ishikawa Prefecture.

Two typhoons east of Japan were moving northward on August 30, with Typhoon No. 23 (Banlan) overtaking Typhoon No. 22 (Artau), although neither storm is expected to have a direct impact on Japan.

A 9-minute, 13-second drone video filmed inside Aeon Mall Kumamoto two days after the deadly explosion has provided a detailed view of the destruction, showing collapsed ceilings, heavy dust and widespread damage that may have affected between one-third and nearly half of the shopping center.

Strong Typhoon No. 18 was moving northwest through the East China Sea on the night of August 26, gradually pulling away from Okinawa and the Amami Islands as lingering rain, strong winds and high waves were expected to ease. As of 9 p.m. on August 26, the typhoon was over waters north-northwest of Kume Island and moving northwest.

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Three teenage boys who went missing after being swept offshore from the coast of Ichikikushikino, Kagoshima Prefecture, on August 28 were found in the sea near the scene on August 29 and confirmed dead.

A foreign man in his 30s suffered serious injuries after being struck by a car while riding a bicycle in Higashiomi, Shiga Prefecture, early on August 29, with police investigating the incident as a hit-and-run.

A fake video apparently created with generative AI showing a large bear eating piles of sliced bread has spread on social media following a series of illegal bread dumping incidents in Tottori Prefecture, prompting the prefectural government to warn that misinformation could cause economic harm.

Three youths, including a high school student and a junior high school student, have been arrested on suspicion of obstructing police duties after allegedly stealing fire extinguishers and spraying them toward a police station in Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture.

Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese avant-garde artist whose obsessive dots, nets, pumpkins and mirrored rooms grew from intensely personal visions into some of the most recognizable images in contemporary art, died at a hospital in Tokyo on August 14, 2026, at the age of 97. Her death was announced on August 27 by companies representing the artist, which said she continued painting until her final days.

A Toei bus crashed into a traffic signal in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward on the morning of August 26 after the driver lost control of the steering wheel while trying to shoo away a mosquito, leaving two male passengers injured.

Kanazawa's fire department is asking residents not to straighten or rearrange shoes removed by paramedics during emergency calls, warning that the well-intentioned gesture can delay the transport of patients by around 30 seconds and potentially interfere with medical care.

Two men who stole four luxury watches worth a combined 200 million yen from a store at Tokyo's Nakano Broadway may have carefully planned the 10-second theft, with one suspect renting an electric kick scooter shortly before the crime and investigators examining whether the other man's escape on foot was intended as a decoy.