JAPAN WON'T LET PASSENGERS OFF PLANES FROM MEXICO (UNTIL DRS/NURSES CHECK EACH PERSON UPON LANDING)

Nikkei News, Japan (in Japanese) ^ | 27 April 2009 | Nikkei News

[AmericanInTokyo]

Nikkei news announces urgent measures by Japan Ministry of Health and Welfare, starting with the next aircraft arriving on 29 April, (there are two direct flights a week from Mexico to Japan), passengers will not be allowed off the aircraft and on to Japanese soil, until a team of 3-6 Japanese doctors and nurses, who have entered the landed craft, check each passenger, survey the group in total, interview, use thermographic testing imagery equipment, etc. to look for Mexican Swine Flu symptoms; passengers will be monitored for 10 days after entering Japan as well. Passengers coming in from California, which may have had some people orgininating in Mexico, will also undergoe strict surveillance. Signs are already being constructed at Narita Airport, Japan, and people walking into immigration queues are first being checked with instrumentation to find those with fever or otherwise sick.

Japanese government checklist, "Phase 4-A" and "Phase 4-B", and how to handle Japanese or foreigners discovered in Japan with this bug.

[Vigilanteman]

The Japanese are more concerned with the safety of their citizens and legal residents (including my brother, SIL, daughter) than they are with political correctness or "what the world thinks".

They've always been that way. Profiling (common sense) is part of their airport security.

Even after 9-11, you could show up to the airport 20 minutes before a domestic flight and get on that flight so long as you weren't in the group profiled.

I remember arriving on a flight from Bangkok once, about 90% Japanese, so I thought it was quicker to pick the "foreigner" line-- as I legal resident I had that choice. But the Japanese whizzed through and the young Thai ladies were being questiones big time (show us your return ticket, how much money you have, where you are staying, etc.), so I moved over to the Japanese line.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Well, they aren't saints here by a long shot, certainly in fairness there is no shortage of spitting by Japanese おじさん (old men) one sees around town, although it is not anything as rampant as witnessed by yours truly in China. But by and large, yes, coughing and sneezing right out in somebody's face in Japan--especially without an apology or effort to deflect the nefarious blast of nasal mist--is very rare and a faux pas; 85%(+/-) of Japanese women carry handkerchiefs, probably 60%(+/-) of Japanese men do as well, and use it in split second decisions in such cases. Fairly vigorously washing hands in public restrooms after bleeding the lizard (not to mention other toilet tasks), etc, is more often the case than not the case. Paper towels are by and large missing; (that is what the trusty personal handkerchief is for.) Most Japanese bow and do not shake hands when greeting; another advantage. VERY generally speaking I would say in these affairs America is somewhere in the middle, somewhere between the pristine antiseptic-ness of Japan (for the most part, I know there are exceptions) and the general filth and uncleanliness of Mexico or Central America--depends where of course. Maybe USA Today has a cute chart/graphic or something like that.

[TaxRelief]

Lesson 1: Never believe anything you read at Huffington Post.

[AmericanInTokyo]

The foreign currency exchange window inside Kansai (Osaka) International Airport in Japan today:

[DvdMom]

bump

[MortMan]

Hey - That map is wrong!!!

It doesn’t have the U.S. at its center... ;-P

[2harddrive]

is this the Wisdom of the East....or bias against the West?

[boxerblues]

Track the flu progress, it may take a minute to load

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=p&msa=0&msid=106484775090296685271.0004681a37b713f6b5950&ll=32.990236,-95.800781&spn=62.421003,72.246094&z=4

[SharpRightTurn]

Japanese get border control issues BUMP.

[wolfcreek]

Whew! One person on those planes test positive and the whole crowd will be sent back.

[wolfcreek]

Whew! One person on those planes test positive and the whole crowd will be sent back.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

I thought that this has a long incubation period - so people who carry the virus wont have symptoms of any type.

I think some people are confusing the incubation period, which they currently think is 24-48 hours, with the infectious period, about 7 days.

If this flu does get out of control (we don't know whether that will happen), political correctness can take away opportunities to quarantine airliners with infected passengers.

WRT swine flu, Japan is protecting its people, while here the Napolitano/Holder team gives out work permits for busted illegals. Legal travelers are more of an immediate threat, but in the long term, illegals pose an additional threat for importing various diseases.

[Vigilanteman]

I thought you were in Tokyo. I spent 5 years using NRT and 8 years using KIX. One thing I really appreciate about Japan (after I left) is that the FX windows in airports didn't try to rip you off-- you got the same rates as going to a bank. As you may know, the FX windows here in the states may have a 20 yen spread or more between their buying and selling price.

On a trip home (to Japan) from Guam once, I once whipped out a wad of small denomination dollar bills the vacationing Japanese needed to pay the airport tax and gave them a fair rate. Some, of course, were afraid to buy from an "unofficial" source, but others appreciated a fair rate and a shorter line.

[SE Mom]

BREAKING on FOX- The State Dept has issued a do-not-travel-to-Mexico warning to all U.S citizens - unless essential.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

What? A government with even the slightest touch of sense? Unpossible!

[luckystarmom]

but it can delay it while they make a vaccine, and it may slow it down making it not so overwhelming.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

BREAKING on FOX- The State Dept has issued a do-not-travel-to-Mexico warning to all U.S citizens - unless essential.

A rare instance of good judgment from "our" govt. Maybe Mexico realized that if Mexican travel did cause an epidemic here (and we don't know if that would happen or not), in the long term their tourist revenues would be hurt more, and so they gave Obama the OK to issue the warning.

Or maybe Emanuel looked at the polls and saw what the US public wants.

[ut1992]

Looks similar to what I encountered in Hong Kong last month. Was in the Philippines on business and connected through Hong Kong on my way to Paris. They had “monitoring stations” throughout the airport with what I'm assuming were thermal cameras.

Once I boarded the Air France flight the cabin crew announced that they had to “spray” the cabin with some kind of spray. The purser's English was hard to understand so I didn't catch the purpose, but I'm assuming it was for Avian Flu. After a final meeting in Frankfurt I flew home and was interegated by the Customs Officer about my activities in the Philippines and whether or not I had gone to mainland China while connecting in Hong Kong.

[spodefly]

It almost seems like a quaint anachronism to see a government that cares about its citizens more than it cares about political correctness.

[Joe Boucher]

Awhile after being in Seoul, maybe a month or so a friend asked if I wanted to go see a movie.
We went and saw The Graduate. English with Korean sub-titles.
A very old little lady sat next to me all dressed in very fine customary dress and about ten minutes in to the movie she hocked a huge lugie on the floor and I about died.
Minor culture shock.
And so many other lessons that taught me well.