The dreaded COVID-19 pox has not been completely beaten yet and has left us with unforgettable scars. The World Health Organization (WHO) said in March that it expects to declare an end to the COVID-19 pandemic sometime in 2023. As of March 2023, there have been 765 million confirmed cases and 6.9 million confirmed deaths worldwide. These are staggering numbers, but we don't see them in the news as often anymore.
Pandemic fatigue has set in. People have become complacent, accepting a certain number of deaths as a cost of returning to normal. Even in conservative and safety-conscious Japan, masks, social distancing, and frequent handwashing have become more and more relegated to the traumatic past that nobody seems willing to think over.
"It's an individual's choice now," we are told. For me, that boiled down to building up the courage to flaunt my maskless mug on trains along with a few independent souls willing to flaunt the majority still wearing masks. It was getting hotter on the Tokyo trains, and I found the masks to be too much. I eyed other "normal" looking office workers like me not wearing masks. No other people were showing their discomfort by leaving empty seats unoccupied, nor doling out the stink-eye of disapproval. I figured, why not try going maskless? And I haven't looked back. I am now both mask-less physically and mentally. And it feels good.
Progressively Pandexcellent re-entry process in Japan
One sign of social shifts underway in Japan is the official abandonment of any kind of border controls related to the virus. Starting on April 29, passengers arriving in Japan no longer had to provide proof of vaccination or negative test results, according to media reports, as the country braces for an influx of travelers during the Golden Week holidays.
This progress took time. The re-entry process for me at Haneda Airport in February 2023 took less than an hour, a significant improvement from the convoluted testing and confirmation process that took hours in April 2022. International travel was enough of a hassle in the "early COVID" era, with visa applications, baggage rules, and the other umpteen logistical arrangements to consider. Then came the COVID tests, the border restrictions, and QR code apps that varied across countries. Untangling the rules cost untold hours scrutinizing endless pages of travel guidelines on the websites of foreign embassies. But now, in Japan, a super-simplified immigration re-entry system has evolved with the diminished viral threat.
Where are we now? We can travel. We can party. We can try and pretend the last three years never happened. But COVID-19 turned social norms upside down for three years, and there will be lingering effects. I'm hopeful that the long-term effects of the pandemic will be piddling even as we learn valuable lessons from this terrible ordeal.
"It's an individual's choice now," we are told. For me, that boiled down to building up the courage to flaunt my maskless mug on trains along with a few independent souls willing to flaunt the majority still wearing masks. It was getting hotter on the Tokyo trains, and I found the masks to be too much. I eyed other "normal" looking office workers like me not wearing masks. No other people were showing their discomfort by leaving empty seats unoccupied, nor doling out the stink-eye of disapproval. I figured, why not try going maskless? And I haven't looked back. I am now both mask-less physically and mentally. And it feels good.
Progressively Pandexcellent re-entry process in Japan
One sign of social shifts underway in Japan is the official abandonment of any kind of border controls related to the virus. Starting on April 29, passengers arriving in Japan no longer had to provide proof of vaccination or negative test results, according to media reports, as the country braces for an influx of travelers during the Golden Week holidays.
This progress took time. The re-entry process for me at Haneda Airport in February 2023 took less than an hour, a significant improvement from the convoluted testing and confirmation process that took hours in April 2022. International travel was enough of a hassle in the "early COVID" era, with visa applications, baggage rules, and the other umpteen logistical arrangements to consider. Then came the COVID tests, the border restrictions, and QR code apps that varied across countries. Untangling the rules cost untold hours scrutinizing endless pages of travel guidelines on the websites of foreign embassies. But now, in Japan, a super-simplified immigration re-entry system has evolved with the diminished viral threat.
Where are we now? We can travel. We can party. We can try and pretend the last three years never happened. But COVID-19 turned social norms upside down for three years, and there will be lingering effects. I'm hopeful that the long-term effects of the pandemic will be piddling even as we learn valuable lessons from this terrible ordeal.
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