Survey: Traveling Plans During COVID-19 in Japan

As of December 1st, COVID-19 cases in Japan have been steadily declining ever since the Olympic games in Tokyo ended in August. You can see how shops and restaurants are almost back to the usual business hours, and things seem like they are heading in the right direction.

However, as you may already heard, the Japanese government just announced a few days ago that it will ban new foreign arrivals for at least a month over fears of the new Omicron variant of the Corona virus. This restriction started on November 30.

You can check the details of this news here.

This news will definitely alter many people’s plans, especially being in a season where many people like to travel.

We wanted to see how this news has affected people’s plans of traveling. Therefore, our PCR test online booking service, Clinic Nearme, has conducted a survey among its customers.

In this article, we will share the results of this survey so that you can have an idea of how the situation is regarding peoples traveling plans.

*Please note that this article contains affiliate links.

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Our Survey regarding Travel Plans during COVID-19

Our latest survey questions about traveling plans among Clinic Nearme Customers are as below;

1. Where are you currently living?
2. Do you have any plan to travel for Christmas / New Year holidays?
3. Where do you plan to go?
4. Due to the current situation, did you change your plans?
5-1. Why did you change your plans?
5-2. Why did you not change your plans?
6. If you decide to change your plans, when would you like to reschedule?
7. Do you plan to go to Japan in a near future?
8. Did the current situation and restrictions change your plan of living or visiting Japan?
9. Where do you usually get information regarding the COVID-19 situation?
10. Are you afraid of the new Omicron variant? Why?

although we started conducting this survey just a few days ago, we already have over 100 responses. Here are the results.

1. Where are you currently living?

As you can see, the overwhelming amount of people who took this survey are people living in Japan. 97% to be exact, as opposed to 3% living abroad.

2. Do you have any plan to travel for Christmas / New Year holidays?

84% of the people who took the survey answered that they have plans to travel during this winter. And only 16% have no plans on traveling at this point.

3. Where do you plan to go?

Here, you can see that the grand majority (90%) of people are planning on traveling abroad to see their family. This is followed by the people traveling abroad for tourism which is 6%, and people traveling within Japan which is only 4%.

4. Due to the current situation, did you change your plans?

As you can see, most of the people who took this survey responded that they will not change their plans on traveling this winter(69%). This is followed by 21% who are not decided yet, and 10% who decided to change their initial plans due to the recent announcement.

It’s important to notice that some people decide to change their departure to a sooner date so that they can avoid any kind of potential changes in country entry/departure regulations.

5-1. Why did you change your plans?

For those who answered “YES” in the previous question, we asked why did they decide to change their plans. 67% responded that it was due to the fear of the possibility that they might not be able to come back to Japan due to the restrictions.

5-2. Why did you not change your plans?

On the other hand, we also asked the people who answered “NO” in question number 4 their reasons. 43% responded that they didn’t want to change their plans because they want to see their families and friends. Also, 29% responded that they just didn’t want to change their plans anymore. Then there is 17% who said that they’re not afraid of this situation, and 15% who cannot change their plans due to an emergency.

6. If you decide to change your plans, when would you like to reschedule?

Another question for those who decided to change their plans. 50% responded that they would like to reschedule their trip to sometime early next year. Then 23% said that they would like to reschedule for next year’s summer holidays. The same amount of people responded wanting to reschedule for “around Golden Week”, “end of next year”, and “just gave up re-scheduling” at 9%.

7. Do you plan to go to Japan in a near future?

67% of the people not living in Japan responded that they are planning on visiting Japan sometime in the near future. For the moment, no one answered that they are planning on living in Japan in the near future.

8. Did the current situation and restrictions change your plan of living or visiting Japan?

Another question for the people not living in Japan. The people whose decisions were affected by this entry-restricting announcement were exactly the same as the people whose decisions have not changed at 50%.

9. Where do you usually get information regarding the COVID-19 situation?

The image above represents the answers given by the people who took this survey. As you can see, “News” and “Website” are the largest keywords used by the people who took the survey. There are 3 prevalent sources which are the “news media(both TV and internet)”, “government websites”, and “social media”.

【Some of the Answers from customers】

• News websites & Ministry of Health website
• Newspaper, chat groups for foreigners living in Japan, MOFA site
• wechat、internet、Line、TV and so on
• NHK World News, Japan Times, BBC, other internet sources, colleagues at work

10. Are you afraid of the new Omicron variant? Why

As you can see in the image above, the major keywords that came out from the answers of this survey are “Yes”, “Vaccinated”, “afraid”, and “Yet”.

It seems that there are mostly 3 patterns of answers to this question.

One is the people who are afraid due to the uncertainty of details regarding this new variant. The second is the people who are being calm about the situation saying that they are still waiting for more information about this new variant. And finally, the third is the people who are tired of this whole situation that’s causing people to need to change plans all the time.

【Some of the Answers from customers】

• Yes！
• No details are yet known about the variant so difficult to make any opinion about it.
• Afraid is a big word. But there is definitely a need to be very careful – as we have had to be over the last 18 months.
• No precise information was released yet by any authority. At the moment only speculations by the media outlets.
• no, every day we have and will have a new variant. Should we live forever with restrictions? vaccine will work.
• Yes, but not really because of the variant itself, but more because I’m afraid the government will over-react and make it about politics, which will, in turn, makes the situation more difficult for us foreigners.
• “Yes im afraid ,were double dose vaccinated Pfizer in my country and will take by january a booster shot ..”

About Clinic Nearme

As I mentioned before, this survey was conducted by Clinic Nearme.

At Clinic Nearme, we offer PCR tests including certificate issuance apt for entering any country in the world. We accept last-minute reservations for people who are in a hurry and there is no cancellation fee even if you decide to cancel your appointment on the same day of your test.

See detailed information on the official website here.

The website is multilanguage, and we also offer multilanguage customer service.

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I hope this article was helpful for you in any way.

We now offer a Newsletter service in which we can keep you informed with the latest news regarding travel restrictions having to do with COVID-19.

If you are looking for more COVID-19 related information, check the following articles.

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