SNA (Tokyo) — Japan’s decision to exclude most foreigners, including many foreign residents, from entering or reentering the national borders during the Covid pandemic has had a human and reputational cost which the mainstream media has tended to either ignore or to downplay.

As a progressive news agency that fights for the interests of ordinary people, it has thus fallen to us to more fully present the views of those who have been suffering at the hands of the official policies, and to help give voice to the voiceless.

In response to our call on Twitter for affected people to send us their stories, about fifty responded in five days. With their permission, some excerpts are provided below. Since some of them fear Japanese government retaliation for speaking out, all of them will be granted anonymity. These are the authentic voices, only slightly edited for spelling and grammar due to the fact that many of them are not native speakers of English.

Student from Mongolia – “I feel like I did something wrong”

I studied Japanese by myself even though my parents didn’t support me on it. Because I was so into Japanese culture, I bought a book by my own savings and learned grammar on my phone. My family didn’t have money to afford expensive tuition fees at Japanese university, but my parents acknowledged me after I showed my seriousness and dedication by achieving intermediate level in Japanese language proficiency test by learning by myself. And they managed to save enough money for me to attend a Japanese language school so I could get advanced level proficiency in Japanese and succeed into university.

After going through a lot, persuading my parents to support my dream and my plan to study in Japan, I graduated high school and went to an agency that could recommend me the best language school to advance my study in a university. And everything went smoothly. I had a online meet up with person in charge of the language school I chose. It was very happy moment hearing they accepted my entry request!

I told everyone that I would be in Japan after a month. But we all know what happened after that, I guess.

My friends are already in university and they’re second year students. I feel like I’m being left behind. That’s one of the worst things young people could feel. They’re studying in university and doing jobs, improving themselves while I can’t even get a job because I don’t know when I’m leaving this country.

I feel like I did something wrong. It is so much burden.

Their discrimination towards us has become unbearable now. Now I have made my Plan B (to study in Korea) instead of waiting Japan’s incompetent government to do their job which they failed to do.

Father in Canada – “I have not seen my children in two years”

I’m the father of three girls, who live in Japan with their mom, and I’m supposed to have custody of them during winter and summer school breaks. I have not seen them in two years.

Japan has made it incredibly time consuming to get a visa. This December I had a new visa ready and all parts of my trip planned and purchased. Then the news came out about the foreigner ban, so I asked the consulate if it affected me. They confirmed I couldn’t go. So I cancelled everything I could (out about $3k). A day later they wrote me to say actually I can go. Then two days after that they say actually I can’t go.

By the way, if I want my children to visit me in Canada, it’s easy. Canada exempts children in custody arrangements from both entry bans and quarantine. But they would not be able to return in any practical way–between quarantine and not living near Tokyo (with no exemption to let them on domestic flights or trains) the requirement is that returning Japanese children need to quarantine by themselves far from caretakers for fourteen days.

I’m fully vaccinated, and just still can’t believe they made a fake system to shorten quarantine for business travelers, but it doesn’t apply to parents visiting their children or children returning from foreign custody.

Student from Sri Lanka – “the love I have for this country is slowly fading”

I’ve been waiting since August 2021 to enter Japan, so it might not seem like a long time, but I had actually deferred my application to university by a term because of the ongoing entry ban. So, I’ve actually been waiting since January 2021 at the very least… That’s one whole year!

And, it’s also one year of waiting to reunite with my boyfriend who left for Japan (he had a residence card already) on January 2021. So this year has been really tough for us, as we keep planning our entry and apartment hunting, but Japan keeps delaying without no clear news.

If it wasn’t for my boyfriend, I honestly would have given up on Japan by now… but I can’t do that. The love I have for this country is slowly fading because it’s quite clear that the Japanese do not really like us foreigners even though we contribute so much to their economy.

Honestly, it’s been really disappointing, and the impact this has had on our mental health is impossible to even begin to explain. I really hope talking out like this will serve some purpose, because the government doesn’t seem to have the slightest concern for us.

Please make our voices reach the government. Please let the Japanese people know we are suffering.

Man from Australia – “my entire life has been upended by the uncertainty”

I studied at a Japanese university and have worked in Japan for several years in addition to running my own business. I had applied to study as a language school student because my fiancee is Japanese and I will most likely reside there long term.

My Japanese partner and I had lived together in Australia up until April 2020, at which point Covid forced her to return to Japan a few months ahead of me (or so we thought at the time). It has been over eighteen months since I last saw my fiancee and my entire life has been upended by the uncertainty.

I am lucky that I am not without money as I have had to pay very for very expensive accommodation during this period due to the difficulties of obtaining flexible leases in my country. To add insult to injury, Japan have announced on several occasions that the border would open, only to change their mind or slam the border shut shortly afterward. Every time this happened I have begun to pack up my life here. I actually quit my job in October last year and was lucky that I could be rehired. I have had to rebuy a car, stuff around friends and family for a place to sleep. It is straight up insane not having a reliable timeline.

I won’t go into too much detail but I’d like to mention that I’ve estimated this entire ordeal to have cost me upward of US$50,000 in lost wages, business and expenses relating to staying on a flexible lease. That’s not to mention the blows to the mental health in the loss of such money, the loss of my fiancee and basically living in a constant state of uncertainty.

If this continues for more than six more months I will shift all my business out of Japan and move on for good. Two years of your life waiting on a country that clearly thinks all foreigners are carriers for this virus (despite my state having zero cases) is absurd.

Japanese in Singapore – “the government is so trigger-happy on shutting out foreigners”

I am a Japanese citizen living in Singapore (which has its own xenophobic border policies, but that’s a different story!) but my husband is not Japanese. We were planning to visit my parents in Japan this winter so that they could meet their first grandson, who was born last year.

When they announced that they were cancelling all new entry visas, I called the embassy, the airline, and some visa hotline in order to make sure that my husband could still enter Japan. The airline told me to call the embassy, the embassy said call back tomorrow, and the visa hotline said that he couldn’t get in. By the end of the next day, we became relatively certain that my husband could still enter on his “temporary visa for spouse of Japanese national.” Unfortunately, the following day, I got an email from the embassy in Singapore saying that he couldn’t get in on that visa after all.

I appealed the decision from the embassy on “humanitarian grounds” and am still waiting to hear back. While writing the appeal, I learned that a friend of mine (husband of a Japanese permanent resident who was also supposed to fly from California to Japan next week, and who has the same temporary visa as my husband) was told that he would have to serve an institutional quarantine for three days upon entering Japan as California just reported its first Omicron case. This is frustrating as Singapore has not been put on the list for institutional quarantine and yet we are getting denied entry, whereas someone in California with basically the exact same visa is being allowed entry (albeit with hotel quarantine).

I understand that there’s not a lot of sympathy floating around the internet for Japanese citizen returnees, and I think it is patently unfair that the government is so trigger-happy on shutting out foreigners while letting citizens come and go at will (believe me, I’ve been on the receiving end of such lopsided, unscientific, xenophobic, nationalistic pandering here in Singapore, and it has made me extremely bitter). But, the past couple days have been such a hot mess that I really just needed to rant to someone.

Engineer from India – “Japan’s travel ban has devastated my career and mental health”

I am pouring my heart out to explain how Japan’s travel ban has devastated my career and mental health. I’m an engineering graduate from India with masters in mechanical engineering. I always had a passion for Japan due to its prowess in automobile and quality control.

I got a  job in late 2019 and I was initially supposed to enter Japan in April 2020. But at the start of the pandemic, all countries closed their borders and so did Japan. My departure was postponed. While other countries opened up for essential travel by June, Japan only opened in October 2020, after six months. But the rules of entry were stricter than before, having to submit a pledge and strict punishments to the company in case an employee breaks quarantine rules. I was fine with the quarantine. But my employer was not comfortable with the pledge and asked me to wait until this complicated procedure is removed. As a result I gave up on that job and started job hunting again.

But I was still stubborn about starting my career in Japan. It was my dream. Soon, in November, I had many interviews with Japanese companies and finally landed a job. This employer expected me to enter Japan in January 2021. But alas! By Christmas 2020, Japan closed again. It was initially for a month, it it went on for ten months. All this while, I waited patiently. I had received certificate of eligibility and my employer was very supportive. But being a mechanical engineer, work from home was not a possibility. So I was waiting for Japan to open.

On November 5, 2021, Japan announced its plan to open for new entries. But with the introduction of a screening certificate which can take one month to get issued and is a most complicated process. I was hopeful this time. I booked flights. My employer booked my accommodation and applied for a screening certificate. I was all set to apply for a visa in the first week of December. But with the discovery of Omicron, Japan’s government panicked and closed all foreigners once again.

All this while,  all I have gotten is utter disappointment, depression, mental strain, and sleeplessness. I’m having to do an unrelated job since the beginning of this year. It has been a total nightmare. No other developed countries are so conservative about their borders. South Korea, the UK, the US, Italy, France, etc. all of them never stopped essential travel for workers and students. But Japanese government has been incredibly xenophobic and they have destroyed thousands of lives.

I urge you from the bottom of my heart: Please raise this issue. Please let the people of Japan know how unfair and racist this government rules are; how knee-jerk decisions from Japanese government have deeply affected foreigners and the Japanese economy.

European Engineer – “all I see is racism”

I am a European citizen who was recruited by a Japanese company in September 2020 and still isn’t able to join.

I quit my job in Germany to move to Japan, when they then closed the border in December 2020. I have been living off unemployment money and my savings for the last year, unsure if i should start a new life in Europe or keep waiting in vain.

No matter how hard I think about it, all I see is racism. Japan is only allowing Japanese citizens in and out of the country, which is totally absurd. Do Japanese people not get infected? Does Covid choose people according to their citizenship? No, so it is just plain xenophobia, and I am more than disappointed that no country is doing anything about this.

I decided to give up. I have now started a new job in Europe, and I don’t know if I still want to go to Japan ever again. It’s sad that I have nothing but resentment and hate for a country that I used to like.

British Gardening Student – “our future is being held to ransom for no rational reason”

I received a scholarship in April 2020 from a British organisation. We were supposed to travel to Japan in early September 2020 to do a one year language study programme, followed by a one month homestay and then a six month work placement in our respective career/academic fields. I am a gardener, wanting to specialise in Japanese gardens.

The Japanese government spends quite a lot of money on building gardens overseas as part of it’s cultural exchange and expansion programmes to promote tourism to Japan and affinity with Japanese culture. Unfortunately not many people outside of Japan know how to maintain these gardens so in the UK at least, they are often in a poor state. I am very passionate about Japanese gardens having travelled and trained in Japan previously, and I really want to learn Japanese so I can gain more skills and enhance appreciation of Japanese gardens. Other people on the scholarship programme include a doctor, a seaweed researcher, an economist, artists and more. People that love Japan and pose no risk.

Anyway, when it became clear that we would not be allowed into Japan in 2020, the scholarship programme decided to delay so that we would start in April 2021. Unfortunately by that time my wife had already left her job and self-funded an application to language school as she was planning to travel out with me. She lost the money she’d spent and had to find more work, but we were OK.

In December 2020 Japan went into another state of emergency, but said that the border closures would only last for the same period, so we optimistically (naively) carried on with our plans. This meant putting my house up for rent, putting all our possessions in storage, closing up my business, selling my van and various equipment and giving away my clients–and my wife giving up work again.

We went to stay at my mum’s until our flight date, which came and went. After two months of getting up at midnight to start classes at 1am, the scholarship programme said we could pause and restart in September as we were getting so unwell. I had constant stomach cramps from stress and caffeine; we were exhausted and constantly confused and miserable. We were living near our friends and family but unable to see them because we were asleep when they were awake.

At this point we’ve spent eighteen months in uncertainty, nine months living temporarily in my mum’s house, two months nocturnally. My wife has quit and re-found work three times and I’ve been unable to work other than low-paid temporary jobs, as I no longer have my van and business. We’ve lost money, we’ve lost health, and our future is being held to ransom for no rational reason.

We are all paralysed against our will, with our jobs and livelihoods in the balance.

Foreign Fiancee – “we’ve been crying out for help for so long”

I hope that through this, cries of separated unmarried couples will be finally heard. My fiancee and I planned to get married last year, but now all our plans are still up in the air because of the unending and unfair travel ban. Since 2020, long before the students and workers started lobbying online, separated unmarried couples have been begging for exemptions, but until now we still remain unheard.

Some had to resort to getting student/work visas but only a few of them succeeded to enter. Couples, including us, had to rely on third countries to finally reunite, but how about those who don’t have the resources and time to do so? Why are we being punished just because we’re in a long-distance relationship? The world feels so cruel and sometimes. I feel like this isn’t even about the virus anymore. Does the virus know nationality? Why are we not given any attention when we’ve been crying out for help for so long?

We want to live our lives too and get on with our plans. But how do we do this when Japan won’t see us other than being “tourists”? Do we wait until Covid is totally gone until we’re allowed to be with our partners?

The government needs to acknowledge us and our cries. It’s not only the students and workers that are oppressed. We are too. We also need help. We also have lives.

Foreign Student – “stop treating us like a threat”

Before the start of the pandemic I was supposed to do a study abroad program in Japan and had my program canceled a week before departure due to Covid. Of course I understood at the time it was inevitable and was something out of my control. However, I reapplied for the same program three times after I was told by my institution that programs would resume… only to be told each time that the program had been canceled.

Eventually I graduated from my institution and sought to do my masters in Japan, since I was unable to attend my program before. At the time of applying, the Japanese institution assured me that travel was possible and that at the moment there was no concern for cancellation. Yet, three weeks into the semester, Japan once more closed its borders and I was left stranded along with others having had payed full tuition fees and acquired my certificate of eligibility.

The issue with these restrictions does not lie just with the frustration of needless paperwork and ridiculous wait times, but also with the fact that there is no one to address these issues to. Japanese institutions have done little to inform international students about border issues or updates and continue to demand full tuition fees for semesters, along with real time attendance through Zoom. Many students are tired and in no condition to learn, yet these concerns are seemingly ignored both by the Japanese government and institutions.

It is frustrating not having a clear answer and being left with a false sense of hope only to be rejected again and again. Many students are putting careers and funds on the line for this opportunity and are reaching a point were waiting is no longer an option. With some even graduating without ever having even to their campus even once.

All students ask for is that Japan be clear about the our future and stop treating us like a threat. Many of us are vaccinated and willing to comply with quarantine procedures, but don’t understand why such heavy restrictions are being put on us in the first place. If we are not wanted, then just say so rather than leave us waiting.

Girlfriend from Spain – “they are making us suffer”

We are an international couple that have in relationship for many years. While I was studying in my country, I have been studying Japanese and my partner and I have been planning our future together. Even now we are planning it.

Last year (2020), I wanted to go to Japan to be with my partner and move forward together, fulfill our life plans together, which includes getting married.

Last year, Japan allowed a certain type of people to enter approximately at Christmas and then closed again, then it has allowed athletes from the Olympic games, Ministry of Education students… in November of this year, it did just like last year, and in none of these moments Japan thought about international couples.

International couples are FAMILY! I have a long relationship with my boyfriend and we have talked a thousand times about getting married. But if we are not together, Japan considers us tourists. But if they don’t let us be together, how are we going to move forward and get married? Can we get married, create a home, have children… by mobile phone?

Why in these two years has Japan not thought of creating a visa for couples or helping couples to meet again like other countries? To allow us to move forward together!

This situation creates stress, frustration, anxiety… for not knowing how we can be together. Who would like to be forced to be separated from their partner and not be able to fulfill their life plans together that they (WE) have?

I wonder if in this world there are people who do not know the meaning of the words LOVE, FAMILY, TOGETHER. They are making us suffer. We have future plans together! We cannot change countries and at no time have they thought of us. We wanted to be together and we have been forced to postpone it to next year. Why?

Student from Brazil – “this time I really want to die”

I’ve been preparing to go to Japan as student since February 2020.

To receive a certificate of eligibility is very time consuming. It’s lots of paperwork and payment of at least six months of tuition fees, and six months of a Japanese language school in Japan is very expensive.

The October 2021 term began and finally in November, the news I had waited for that the travel ban had been lifted finally came. I cried. My chest felt like a heavy burden had been lifted alongside the travel ban. So will I finally be able to enter Japan? NO! Three weeks later after the border opened, the Omicron variant appeared, and a new ban.

This time I really want to die. Because I don’t see my life getting better from here on. My father, who is also my sponsor, told me he will not pay any more abusive fees, and other expenses.

Watching classes in own room, it’s awful. I don’t want this. The school only refunded six months of the fee… I paid for nine months.

Not being able to move Japan for me is devastating, I don’t have words to describe how sad I am now. I’m depressed, and I’ve lost all motivation. My family is always questioning me about what’s going on… and I don’t have any answers to give.

Sometimes I wonder… why? Why this is happening to me? Did I do something wrong in another life?

I really hope when December ends a miracle could happen and Japan realizes the mess they’re making of our lives.

PLEASE OPEN THE BORDERS FOR STUDENTS! We will quarantine, take tests, everything you need to give us a chance to enter in Japan.

Student from Taiwan – “the Japanese government’s decision has almost destroyed my hopes”

As you know, the entry ban on foreigners Japanese government enacted this month disappointed international students because the border just opened last month and there are hundreds of thousands of students waiting to enter Japan.

This time, even Ministry of Education students can’t enter, which is very unusual because even in this year and the previous year, as I know Ministry of Education students are allowed to enter as long as Japan is not at the state of emergency.

One of the reason I applied for a Ministry of Education scholarship to study in Japan is that I think it is the only way I can meet my partner in Japan. That is what I make a extreme effort for in the last one-and-a-half year when I couldn’t see my partner in person. But now the Japanese government’s decision has almost destroyed my hopes.

It is said to be a temporary measure to prevent the spread of the Omicron virus, but with no scientific evidence to enact these measures and no specific date when the border will be opened, I strongly blame the Japanese government for destroying diplomatic reciprocity and the lack of humane consideration.

It’s not only me is facing this intolerable difficulty. There are thousands of us suffering. Please cover our stories and ask for justice for us.

Saudi Software Engineer – “this is going to leave a sour taste in people’s mouths”

I’ve wanted to travel to Japan for as long as I can remember, but I haven’t been self-sufficient enough to make that kind of investment until a few years ago. For the past year-and-a-half, I have been self-studying Japanese with the goal of studying the language in Japan when the opportunity presents itself.

I’ve contacted my language school multiple times regarding my application which cannot be started formally until a clear reopening plan is in place by the government. Without such a plan in sight, we’ve agreed to sit tight and wait until an announcement goes live before we can move forward. It has currently been nearly a year since I first contacted the school and we’re still on standby. Neither of us had expected to wait this long.

My understanding is Japan is the only country amongst G20/G7 countries that has had its borders sealed tight almost for the entirety of the past two years. Worse yet, there appears to be a fundamental disconnect between the rules underlying the lockdown and established public health guidelines, especially as many of these rules are either entirely unnecessary, self-contradictory, or both. It leads me to believe that the border shutdown is politically rather than epidemiologically motivated, and until Japan shows otherwise, it will be difficult for them to change the public’s mind.

I would also like to stress that, despite my frustration, there are others who have it far worse than me. There are people waiting on actual scholarships, degrees, and jobs. For them, the situation is far more pressing. To see so many tweets about people canceling plans or switching programs to a different country is frankly gut-wrenching. Even worse is the Japanese government’s continued negligence and apathy.

I feel this is going to leave a sour taste in people’s mouths for the foreseeable future. There will be long-term damage to Japan’s reputation as a target destination for students, tourists, and workers. It’s unfortunate that the Japanese government does not appear to have taken this possibility into consideration before making these decisions.

Foreign Game Designer – “I think this is a fraud”

When I was little, I’ve always loved Japanese culture, and my dream was to study abroad or settle in Japan. I used to love Japan. I have traveled to Japan four times between 2014 and 2019. I have seen cherry blossoms in Tokyo and autumn leaves in Kyoto.

I am heavily influenced by Japanese anime and manga. After graduating from Japan, I have been working as a game designer. I have a dream of coming to Japan to deepen my favorite culture and create works that everyone likes.

In 2020, I quit my job, planned to study in Japan with the money I had saved, and to develop a business in Japan. Two years have been wasted, and I paid millions of yen in non-refundable tuition fees.

I think this is a fraud. I’m very depressed. I already have severe depression and heart disease and am currently preparing for surgery at a hospital. I demand compensation for the tuition and my mental anguish.

In the summer of 2021, the pandemic exploded in Japan. However, only foreign Olympic athletes could enter the country. Almost no international students have been allowed to enter.

This is a human rights violations and racism. Japan, which claims to be a civilized society, excludes foreigners. I’m not even that angry any longer. I’m just sad.

Student from India – “this never-ending ban has drained me financially and mentally”

In order to pursue my dream to study in Japan, I left my job as a flight attendant in January 2020. As an Indian passport holder, it is a mandatory requirement to be at least N5 level certified to enroll in a language school. So I spent first half of 2020 studying for the proficiency test. Since the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test was cancelled, I took another proficiency test and got my proficiency certificate.

Following which I started my application in October 2020 and finally enrolled for April 2021 semester. I received my certificate of eligibility in February 2021. Since then I have been waiting.

Since the ban lasted longer than expected. I have run out of savings, as I had already quit my job. I had to move back to my parents’ house and now I’m basically living off them.

This never-ending ban has drained me financially and mentally, as it’s frustrating to see my peers building up their careers and lives, whereas I’m still in a limbo.

Since the government hasn’t announced any clear timelines, it is getting difficult for me to take up any job, because I might have to quit at any moment in order to move to Japan.

Every morning I wake up with a heavy heart and an anxious mind. Most of the nights I am unable to fall asleep. I have immersed myself so much in the language and the culture that it’s difficult for me to abandon my dreams.

Waiting any longer could affect my career and my life as this gap of two years will be difficult to explain on my next job hunt.

Student from China – “I have collapsed mentally every day”

Like many other international students, I become interested in Japan from its anime. When I was little, my favorite thing was watching Japanese anime, except for playing outside with my friends. In this way, my interest and love increased from Japanese animation to Japan itself.

My parents also love Japan, and always said that Japan is the light of Asia. Therefore, with the support of my parents, I started studying Japanese in earnest in 2019. After that, I bought an expensive Japanese book, asked my teacher to participate in an event where Japanese people came. I have worked hard to live in my favorite country; a country that I love much more than my own.

However, as you know, a new type of coronavirus appeared. In order to be able to go to Japan, I refused to attend the second semester of my third year of high school (there are only two semesters per grade in China), and since April I have been taking Japanese language school classes every day via Zoom.

However, since there are no Japanese people around me, the progress of my Japanese is quite slow. And because I’ve had to stay home all this time for online classes, I’ve had more conflicts with my parents. It is really painful to face problems that I cannot solve on my own.

Besides, my friends and classmates all gone to universities, left my hometown, and gone to various parts of China. I was the only one left behind. I can’t make new friends with only online lessons. I’ve run out of all social contacts, and I’m getting more and more angry.

In November, the Japanese government decided to open the country. I was really happy. Although it was a step-by-step acceptance measure with complicated procedures, I was still waiting.

Then it all came to naught. I can’t trust the Japanese government when it says the exclusion of foreigners might last only a month.

In response to this, I have collapsed mentally every day, that my favorite country did something like this. I feel regret, anger, sadness, and suffering. I was already at the limit.

For the future of Japan in a globalized world, please help us.

Businessman in Australia – “many are doubting that the policies are really about public health”

I have a small IT consulting business helping tech startups. Near the end of 2019 I started working with some lawyers in Japan to start a new company in Tokyo. Japan was globally famous for its skilled engineering in the 20th century, but its industry has fallen behind in the 21st century as language barriers have grown more important. My idea was to build a new consulting company that could connect Japanese engineers with tech startups in Silicon Valley and around the world.

However, the borders closed before I could get a visa to start running my new company.

Since then, I’ve repeatedly fallen through the cracks of complex and constantly changing border policies, and I’m still waiting with no end in sight. The rules of the game are extremely frustrating: I’m expected to keep paying taxes and filing fees year after year, while the Japanese government says nothing but “visas are suspended for the time being” and “we’re continuing to monitor the situation.” So far, my Japanese venture has cost me about $25k without earning a single yen.

There are many small business owners in situations similar to mine. We aren’t casual tourists, so most of us would be happy to comply with even strict quarantine requirements if it meant we could get on with our plans. We’re not given any option, though. Again and again, the government has tweaked the exact number of days returning residents are required to spend in quarantine facilities, while ignoring the fact that many others have waited for over a year because of a disease that has an incubation period under roughly two weeks.

Many are doubting that the policies are really about public health. Many entrepreneurs (maybe half or more) have already given up. Many are going to Taiwan or South Korea or Singapore instead.

Japan is a democracy, which means the people are given the right to decide what should be done. However, I suspect the Japanese government isn’t being transparent with the Japanese people about this situation, just like it isn’t with those trying to invest in the country.

Foreign Wife – “I completely forgot how Japan truly hates foreigners”

I’m married to a Japanese citizen and in October I was given a temporary visa to enter Japan, and now, once again, the government has closed the borders on us.

I wanted to write this email because the treatment of foreigners by the Japanese government is inhuman, embarrassing and disgusting. I lived in Japan from 2018-2019, and from this experience I was unpleasantly surprised by the xenophobic behaviour of this country. I met my husband during this time. Right after Covid hit and we spent ONE YEAR without seeing each other. After consideration, we decided to marry because we thought, who is going to close borders on family? Of course, I completely forgot how Japan truly hates foreigners.

To ask for this temporary visa which expires in January, I had to present an INSANE amount of documents. Including bank statements, because I guess that if you are poor you don’t reserve any rights in Japan. I had to present already booked flights even though I did not have the confirmation of the visa. I had to present a complete schedule of my stay and the story of how I met my husband so they would believe me. I had to give them my legal immigration documents and a letter from my employer too?! Anyways, an insane amount of documents just for a temporary visa. And I was disrespected during my appointment at the embassy because they questioned my marriage with a Japanese citizen.

My husband and I are tired. He is planning to move out of Japan because of their treatment towards me. We can’t build a life in Japan together. Even though we are now considered family, it isn’t enough for the government. Nothing is ever enough for the Japanese government.

I want to bring light to the disrespect, discrimination, and hate Japan has against foreigners. Once again, I’m separated from my husband due to his embarrassing country, and I’m desperate to know what I can do to be considered important enough to be able to visit him.

Student from India – “I am depressed for the first time in my life”

I came home for the holidays before Covid started in February 2020. I was supposed to go back to Japan in March 2020, but all foreign residents were banned. I was happy at first as it meant controlling the virus and more time with my family. Little did I expect that couple months would become a couple years.

It makes me so angry to spend millions of yen on tuition fees and living expenses (I already had an apartment in Japan) while not even being in Japan.

I cannot fully live in India too, because I have to work with time differences. Because of the uncertainty, I have had to give up concerts, gym memberships, events, festival celebrations, etc. because “maybe I need to go to Japan soon.” I have spent these two years in the same room in the same place without even interacting with my family much due to increased workload and stress.

My university had also drastically increased the number of assignments to compensate for “not being in class physically,” which is unfair. I had worked so hard on improving my Japanese, but it has become worse due to being away from Japan for two years.

I cannot do job hunting and I cannot apply for scholarships because I am not in Japan. But I have to pay rent even though I am not in Japan. So unfair. I even got the opportunity to study abroad in the UK this fall semester, but I couldn’t pursue it because all my money and household items are in my Japanese bank and apartment.

I tried to get my money at least, but the bank and my university said nothing can be done as I am not in Japan. The Japanese government gives no clue about when we can enter so I couldn’t make plans for going to Japan to get my money and things before going to the UK.

I am depressed for the first time in my life because of the opportunities I have had to give up due to the Japan travel ban.

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