Open AccessEntry Denied: Japan’s Border Restrictions in the Time of the COVID-19 Emergency
Author(s) -
Nicola Costalunga
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
dve domovini
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.255
H-Index - 9
eISSN - 1581-1212
pISSN - 0353-6777
DOI - 10.3986/dd.2021.2.06
Subject(s) - covid-19 , pandemic , political science , outbreak , business , development economics , economics , virology , medicine , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
With the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 and the resulting COVID-19 pandemic, Japan adopted controversial policies to contain the virus. Unlike many highly developed countries, it enacted strict policies banning entry through its borders to all non-Japanese citizens regardless of their residency status. The further peculiarity is that these measures equalized low-skill and high-skill foreign workers, affecting them identically. Along with describing how the emergency has been handled in relation to foreign nationals, this article highlights how pre-existing socio-cultural dynamics of differentiation between “insiders” and “outsiders” have evolved in response to the pandemic.