Prof. Sasaki Addresses Border Restrictions
Prof. Tomoyuki Sasaki of William & Mary's Japanese Studies Program has published two opinion pieces addressing the Japanese government's maintenance of unusually strict border controls in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Japan recently reopened its borders to business travelers and foreign nationals traveling on guided package tours; however, other foreign nationals may enter only with a visa requiring a sponsor.
Dr. Sasaki's first op-ed appeared on May 3, 2022, in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, or The Nikkei--the world's largest financial newspaper, with a daily circulation of more than three million. The piece, titled "Border Control Measures and Concerns over a Loss of Capable Japan Experts," criticizes the current border restrictions, which prevent tourists from entering the country out of concerns related to COVID-19. In the piece, Dr. Sasaki argues that "we must calmly discuss whether the current border controls are truly necessary for Japanese society."
The second item appeared recently on Nippon.com, a news website published in seven languages and boasting 7 billion readers worldwide. In it, Dr. Sasaki discusses the place of Japanese Studies in U.S. academia and the important role that research travel and study-abroad play in fostering the next generation of expertise on Japan. He points out that scholars typically travel for research on their own and at their own expense, and thus are not covered by the policies allowing business travel or package tours. He urges a return to freer entry policies in the interests of intercultural understanding.
