Last Updated: Jan 16, 2022

Japan After the Pandemic

5 Reasons Why You Should Visit

Donny Kimball
8 min readJan 15, 2022

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Two tourists wearing kimono visit Kyoto after the coronavirus pandemic

As of right now, it’s early 2022. Pretty soon, we’ll be coming up on the two year mark since Japan closed its borders to outside visitors. While the reprieve from overtourism has been a much needed breath of fresh air for places like Kyoto, many of the rural areas of Japan are struggling due to a lack of travelers. On both the international and domestic sides of the tourism industry, the pandemic has had a profound and lasting impact on the regional economy and many local vendors were not able to weather the storm.

Since inbound travel is currently off of the menu, I’ve been trying to shift my focus towards bringing Japan to the rest of the world. Both through stopgap endeavors like virtual tours as well as the e-commerce shop that I launched, I’ve been striving to share what little of Japan I can with everyone trapped outside. At the same time though, I also try to be hopeful that this seemingly everlasting hell will at one day come to a close. Hopefully in the not so distant future, Japan will again open its borders to international travelers looking to experience this amazing country.

Alas, I also realize that there’s going to be some considerable hesitation in regards to the risk of international travel once the pandemic starts…

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Donny Kimball

I'm a travel writer and freelance digital marketer who blogs about the sides of Japan that you can't find in the mainstream media. https://donnykimball.com/