WHAT'S GOING ON WITH JAPAN?

WHAT'S GOING ON WITH JAPAN?

Several people have asked me if we have heard anything about travel to Japan.  We were told that we have our Certificate of Eligibility which is required prior to receiving a Visa. We have not heard anything from the mission office as to when this will take place.  We wait......

We are working 6 hours a day reading journals and history documents at the Church History Library. (Fred is reading them in Japanese kanji. Impressive!!)   Our job is to help prepare documents for release to the public.  We also work with Japan 1-2 hours in the evening via Zoom.  Fred is functioning as the Financial Secretary.  I am serving as the Office Secretary and the Mission Health Advisor.  We also participate with the missionaries in Japan 3x a week in the middle of the night.  Therefore, we are often tired.💤  It is not unusual to find me taking a catnap around 1:30 in the Library because I was moonlighting with the missionaries the night before.  I just lay my head on the desk and sleep about 10 minutes.  It's enough to keep me going until the end of the day.

Serving a mission during COVID leads to a lot of uncertainty but we are hoping things open soon.  We have seen these are articles which gives us hope that it may be soon. 

Kyodo News (October 10):  Malaysia said Sunday it will relax travel curbs within the country as 90 percent of its adult population is now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

CBS News Tokyo (October 1)— Japan has fully dropped its coronavirus state of emergency for the first time in more than six months as the country starts to gradually ease anti-virus measures to help rejuvenate the pandemic-hit economy as the infections slowed. 

US Embassy in Japan (October 1): The Government of Japan has announced that, as of October 1, the quarantine period for fully vaccinated travelers will be reduced to 10 days, subject to a negative PCR or antigen test on the 10th day of quarantine. Travelers who have received two doses of the Pfizer, Moderna, or AstraZeneca vaccine at least 14 days prior to travel are eligible for the reduced quarantine period.

Japan (October 10, updated in past 2 days)
Doses given
Fully vaccinated
% of population fully vaccinated
172,000,000
80,000,000

 

Kyodo News (September 8): The Japanese government plans to relax COVID-19 curbs on travel, large-scale events and serving alcohol around November provided that most of the eligible population is vaccinated by then, sources with knowledge of the plan said Wednesday.

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