150,000 foreign students, 130,000 interns, countless business people and probably even more tourists are waiting to be allowed to enter Japan.

For fear of the corona virus, the country has almost completely closed its borders to foreigners since spring 2020.

For only a few weeks there were hesitant attempts at a gradual opening, which were stopped after a few weeks each time.

Patrick Welter

Correspondent for business and politics in Japan based in Tokyo.

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Now the government is making a fresh start.

From March 1st, students, business people and technical interns who actually work as guest workers will be allowed to enter the country again to a limited extent.

It can be up to 5,000 people a day, currently there are 3,500. Tourists have to stay outside.

This was announced by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday in a televised press conference.

The strict quarantine conditions are also relaxed.

Depending on their origin and vaccination status, those entering the country only have to be in quarantine for three days or not at all.

Kishida is reacting to pressure from companies and Japanese universities with the limited opening of the border.

In the past few days, more and more voices have been raised among the governing parties in favor of opening the borders, because aging Japan is also losing future workers with the foreign students.

But the prime minister is also taking a risk before the upper house elections in the summer because the majority of Japanese think the closed borders to protect against Covid risks are the right thing to do.

In a recent survey by the public television broadcaster NHK, 57 percent of respondents said that the entry ban for foreigners should be retained.

Only 32 percent were in favor of easing.

To prevent political damage, Kishida emphasized that even after the limited opening, Japan will still have the strictest entry regulations in the group of seven.

Foreclosure as in the Edo shogunate period?

Criticism of the slight easing came immediately.

"5,000 arrivals a day are not enough," commented Hiroshi Mikitani, head of the large Internet company Rakuten, on Twitter.

"This damage hurts." The 5000 also includes Japanese.

This limits the free entry places for students or business people even more.

Marcus Schürmann, head of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Japan, therefore sees no tangible improvement.

Schürmann told the FAZ that the government is not showing any medium-term perspective as to the criteria according to which the limited entry visas would be issued. However, for foreign companies this security is crucial for planning.

Kishida described it as unrealistic to abolish all entry barriers in one fell swoop.

The strict closure of the borders has cost the country and the government a lot of goodwill.

In unofficial conversations, some government officials apologize for Japan's harsh treatment.

Foreign commentators and domestic business leaders are comparing the Corona border regime to Japan's isolation from foreigners during the Edo shogunate period of 1603-1867, as Masakazu Tokura, chairman of the powerful Keidanren trade association, said in January.

This unusually sharp criticism runs deep in a country that sees itself as a member of the western community of values ​​of open democracies.

The voices of foreign managers sometimes sound devastating.

"The reputation as a stable and reliable location and partner has been severely damaged," comments the representative of a German company.

"Japan doesn't seem very interested in international business," says another.

The damage to Japan as a business location is clear to see, as a chamber survey of almost 400 German companies in Japan shows.

According to this, 13 percent of the companies want to shift responsibility for the regional business from Japan to other countries.

Part of that has already happened.

A year ago, only two percent of companies had such plans.

Eleven percent will scale down their activities in Japan or have already done so.

A year ago it was only seven percent.

"The high costs at the Japan location were always justified by the fact that the country offered stability and trust," says Schürmann.

"This calculation no longer works for all companies."

Kishida spoke on Thursday of a first step in lifting the anti-corona restrictions.

Japanese experts say the omicron wave has peaked in Japan.

The country has far fewer Covid infections and deaths in relation to population than western countries.

The last seven-day incidence in Japan was around 465. In Germany, for comparison, it was 1385.