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I Was Optimistic About Our Trip To Japan Until I Read This

a house with a bridge over water

If you live in the United States, you often hear about how many people are getting vaccinated against COVID-19 with either the Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines. 4 million Americans received a first (or second) dose of vaccine on Saturday alone. It’s no wonder that most Americans are looking at those numbers and starting to dream of traveling again. I’m not talking about the socially distanced travel we’ve all been learning about for the last year. I’m talking about real travel. Be it going on a cruise or hopping on a plane to visit another country.

For us, that would be our postponed trip to Japan. We had everything set for 2020 but, of course, that didn’t happen. When we were a year out from our dates at the end of 2021, I booked flights for November. I figured there was a good shot everything would be getting back to normal by then, right?

I was looking forward to the trip until I read this article from NHK, the state-controlled public broadcasting network of Japan, titled “Japan starting deliveries of vaccine for elderly.”

Japan is just starting to vaccinate their elderly? We’ve already done that and are looking to offer vaccines to everyone by May 1st, if not earlier.

Why are things taking so long to get started in Japan? It appears that they’re taking time to approve the vaccines already in use around the world until trials are complete in Japan. Here’s a timeline from TimeOut about the planned launch of widescale vaccination in Japan.

So despite the delay in approving the vaccine, the government seeks to start immunizing the general public in July. If Japan has enough supply, I have no doubt that they’ll be able to vaccinate the population quickly.

I agree with other bloggers that countries which have been careful about letting COVID-19 into their countries will only open their borders when most of the population is vaccinated, regardless of the vaccination of a visitor to the country.  Personally, I’m hoping Japan will have most of the populations vaccinated so we’ll be able to visit this winter, but…

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