13-day quarantine enacted for travellers from Thailand to Japan

Neill FrondePublished: 22:17, 16 January 2022| Updated: 22:17, 16 January 2022

240 1 minute read

13-day quarantine enacted for travellers from Thailand to Japan — FT.com

PHOTO: Travel from Thailand to Japan will now require a 13-day quarantine. (via FT.com)

Japan has announced new restrictions for travellers from Thailand entering the country, who must now undergo a 13-day quarantine on arrival. The new restriction will go into effect tomorrow and will affect travellers coming from Thailand and 4 other countries.

The new restrictions follow a farther-reaching announcement on January 15 easing restrictions for the rest of the world, replacing the mandatory 14-day quarantine previously required with a shortened 10-day quarantine.

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But in an effort to contain Omicron variant outbreaks in Japan, 5 countries were added to the list that requires an additional 3 days to their quarantine time. Travellers from India, the Maldives, Mexico, Nepal, and Thailand must be isolated for this 13-day period, after being added to Japan’s list of countries they consider to be experiencing a significant outbreak of the Omicron variant.

Regardless of country of origin, Japan has been closed to incoming international tourists and this policy still does not allow people to travel to the country for a holiday or recreational purposes. Only diplomats or people travelling for humanitarian reasons are allowed to enter if they don’t live in Japan. Other than that, only permanent residents of the country are permitted to travel to Japan now.

Japan is employing a somewhat different quarantine style than Thailand with the quarantine time being split into 2 locations. The Thai ambassador to Japan explains that anyone travelling from Thailand will go into a mandatory 3-day quarantine with Japanese authorities arranging the accommodation for when travellers first arrived in the country.

After those 3 days, the traveller is permitted to quarantine in another location, at their home for people who reside permanently in Japan, or in the secondary hotel or alternate accommodation of the traveller’s choice for those visiting for diplomatic or humanitarian purposes.

The new 13-day quarantine for travellers from Thailand was just announced and will be put into effect immediately on Monday.

Neill Fronde

Neill is a journalist from the United States with 10+ years broadcasting experience and national news and magazine publications. He graduated with a degree in journalism and communications from the University of California and has been living in Thailand since 2014.