U.S.-Japan Community Urges Government of Japan to Relax Border Closure

Washington, D.C. January 19, 2022. The U.S.-Japan partnership has developed through a deep and broad array of people-to-people relationships and experiences, of students, professionals, academics, and government officials, forming the building blocks of meaningful engagement. In the third decade of the 21^st century, our focus is on the next generation stewarding this unique and ever-important alliance forward. Today, the U.S.-Japan community has come together to express its concerns to the Government of Japan, regarding its ongoing closure of Japan’s borders to researchers, academics, government officials and others who are closely invested in this important bilateral relationship.

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Letter to the Government of Japan

(Japanese text follows the English)

January 18, 2022

Dear Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio:

We are scholars, educators, policy practitioners, and bridge builders who have spent our careers engaging with Japan and training the next generation of Japan experts in the United States and elsewhere. We write to express our profound and deepening concern about Japan’s strict border closure for non-citizens. Under current policies, non-resident foreigners who wish to study, work, carry out business, visit family, or engage in research in Japan are unable to enter–even if they are vaccinated, test negative, willing to quarantine, and conform to all public health protocols. Exceptions to this policy have been extremely limited in scope. The closure is harming Japan’s national interests and international relationships. We urge that the policy be modified to allow entry for purposes other than tourism as soon as possible.

Recently, many members of our community gathered to commemorate the memory of the late Harvard professor, Ezra Vogel. Professor Vogel was a leading Japan scholar, policymaker in the US government, and mentor to several generations of students and experts of Japan, including many of us. He consistently emphasized the critical importance of person-to-person connections, which he cultivated throughout his career by traveling frequently to Japan. For the past two years, the formation of such personal ties has come to a virtual halt.

This past fall, our study abroad students were able to study in Korea, but not in Japan, and some students have begun shifting their choice of language study to match the places they can actually visit. Graduate students who sought to include Japan in their research have given up and chosen to focus on countries that allow foreign researchers to enter–fateful decisions with long-term consequences. Many English-language study programs at Japanese universities, which began over the past decade to attract foreign students and build a global reputation, have been unable to attract new applicants. While Japanese students were welcomed at U.S. and other universities under exchange agreements, the inability of foreign students to travel to Japan threatens to freeze these exchanges.

Prime Minister Abe and President Obama committed in 2012 to doubling two-way student exchanges by 2020, and they came close to achieving this important goal by a number of metrics before the pandemic. Governments and private groups in Japan and the United States committed substantial resources to advancing this goal. Now all of those efforts are in danger of withering on the vine.

In recent years, Japan has played a valuable international leadership role by articulating the vision for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific. A basic principle of this vision is openness, which Japan has admirably supported in areas like free trade and investment. The strict border closure is inconsistent with this foreign policy vision. It undercuts Japan’s diplomatic objectives and status as an international leader.

We understand widespread anxiety about the pandemic among the Japanese public and government officials: we share these concerns. However, Japan’s current policy emphasizes citizenship rather than public health. Japanese citizens can travel freely for tourism, while non-citizens are separated from their families, forced to put their careers and training on hold, or reorient their trajectories entirely to focus on other countries. This is an immense loss not only for them, but also for Japan.

We are not advocating that Japan open its borders completely, adopt lax entry requirements, or allow tourists to visit casually for leisure. However, researchers, students, and those who need to visit Japan to see family members are not tourists. They are few in number, and they invest a large amount of time and effort to become familiar with Japan’s language, culture, and society. They become the bridges between Japan and other societies. They are future policymakers, business leaders, and teachers. They are the foundation of the US-Japan alliance and other international relationships that support Japan’s core national interests.

It has been over two years since the beginning of the pandemic. New variants will inevitably evolve with regularity. It is not a viable strategy to sever the human-to-human connections that are so essential to Japan’s long-term national interests. After adopting strict border controls early in the pandemic, several countries–including Japan’s neighbors–have instituted effective quarantine measures that allow for safe entry. We strongly urge the government of Japan to implement similar measures to allow entry for individuals who are core constituencies for Japan, and who will contribute to deepening Japan’s ties with the world.

This statement has been endorsed, not only by the US-Japan Network for the Future, but also by the US-Japan Friendship Commission, the board of the Bridging Foundation, the American Advisory Committee for the Japan Foundation; the Japan Society of New York; and the Japan-America Society of Washington DC. The individual signatories listed below appended their signatures after this letter was circulated by email. Their affiliations are listed for identification; signatories are acting in their personal capacity and not as representatives of their organizations.

Sincerely,

Members of the U.S.-Japan Network for the Future Program

Daniel Aldrich, Director, Security and Resilience Studies Program, and Professor, Political Science and Public Policy, Northeastern University

John Bradford, Executive Director, Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies

Emma Chanlett-Avery, Vice Chair, National Association of Japan-America Societies

Erin Chung, Charles D. Miller Associate Professor of East Asian Politics, Johns Hopkins University

Liv Coleman, Associate Professor of Political Science, The University of Tampa

Annika A. Culver, Associate Professor of East Asian History, Florida State University (FSU); Editorial Board Member, Texas National Security Review (TNSR)

Yulia Frumer, Associate Professor and Bo Jung and Soon Tyoung Kim Chair of East Asian Science and Technology, Johns Hopkins University

James Gannon, Senior Fellow, Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE/USA)

Shihoko Goto, Acting Director, Asia Program, Woodrow Wilson Center

Kristi Govella, Senior Fellow and Deputy Director, Asia Program, The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Mary Alice Haddad, John E. Andrus Professor of Government, Wesleyan University

Tobias Harris, Senior Fellow for Asia, Center for American Progress

Hilary Holbrow, Assistant Professor of Japanese Politics and Society, Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, Indiana University

Llewelyn Hughes, Associate Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

Kathryn Ibata-Arens, Vincent de Paul Professor, DePaul University

David P. Janes, President & CEO, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Foundation; Chair, Japan ICU Foundation; Chair, EngageAsia; Executive VP & COO, American Friends of the International House of Japan

Kazuyo Kato, Executive Director, Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE/USA)

Weston S. Konishi, Senior Fellow, The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation

Adam P. Liff, Associate Professor of East Asian International Relations and Founding Director of the 21st Century Japan Politics & Society Initiative, EALC Department, Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, Indiana University

Phillip Lipscy, Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Japan, Department of Political Science and Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto

Ko Maeda, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of North Texas

Matthew D. Marr, Associate Professor of Sociology, Florida International University

Reo Matsuzaki, Associate Professor of Political Science, Trinity College

Mary M. McCarthy, Professor of Politics and International Relations, Department of Political Science, Drake University

Kenneth Mori McElwain, Professor, Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo

Levi McLaughlin, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, North Carolina State University

Emer O’Dwyer, Associate Professor of History and East Asian Studies, Oberlin College

Andrew L. Oros, Professor of Political Science and International Studies, Washington College

Gene Park, Professor, Political Science and International Relations Department, Loyola Marymount University

Robert J. Pekkanen, Professor, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington

Susan Pharr, Edwin O. Reischauer Research Professor of Japanese Politics, Harvard University; Senior Advisor, US-Japan Network for the Future

Crystal Pryor, Vice President, Pacific Forum International

Anand Rao, Assistant Professor of Political Science & International Relations, State University of New York at Geneseo

Leonard Schoppa, Professor, Department of Politics, University of Virginia; Senior Advisor, US-Japan Network for the Future

Daniel M. Smith, Gerald L. Curtis Visiting Associate Professor of Modern Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy, Columbia University

Sheila A. Smith, John E. Merow Senior Fellow for Asia Pacific Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Chair, Japan-US Friendship Commission; Senior Advisor, US-Japan Network for the Future

Mireya Solis, Director, Center for East Asia Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution

Nicolas Sternsdorff Cisterna, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University

Michael Strausz, Associate Professor of Political Science, Texas Christian University

Hiroki Takeuchi, Associate Professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies of Political Science, and Director of the SMU Tower Center Sun & Star Program on Japan and East Asia, Southern Methodist University

Jolyon Thomas, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania

Kristin Vekasi, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and the School of Policy and International Affairs, University of Maine

Joshua Walker, President and CEO Japan Society and Adjunct Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University

Other Signatories

David R. Ambaras, Professor of History, North Carolina State University

Suzanne Basalla, President and CEO, US-Japan Council

Joshua Batts, Research Associate in Japanese Studies, University of Cambridge

David D. Baskerville, Counselor, International House of Japan

Peggy Blumenthal, Senior Counselor to the President, Institute of International Education

Michael Bourdaghs, Robert S. Ingersoll Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago

Lee Branstetter, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

Kent Calder, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, and Director, Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies, Johns Hopkins University SAIS; Chair, American Friends of the International House of Japan

Jeffrey Char, President & CEO, J-Seed Ventures, Inc.

Niharika Chibber Joe, Deputy Executive Director, Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission

Charles Crabtree, Assistant Professor of Government, Dartmouth College

Paige Cottingham Streater, Executive Director, Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission

Gerald L. Curtis, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Columbia University

Paula R. Curtis, Postdoctoral Fellow, Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

Richard Dasher, Director, U.S.-Asian Technology Management Center, Stanford University

Christina Davis, Professor of Government and Director, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Harvard University

Julie Nelson Davis, Professor of the History of Art, University Pennsylvania

Trevor A. Dawes, Vice Provost for Libraries and Museums, May Morris University Librarian, University of Delaware

Robert Dunbar, W.M. Keck Professor of Earth Science, Stanford University; Professor of Environmental Earth System Science; Anne T. and Robert M. Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education; Director, Stanford University Stable Isotope Lab; Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University

Alisa Freedman, Professor of Japanese Literature, Cultural Studies, and Gender, University of Oregon

Hiroyuki Fujita | 藤田浩之、理学博士（物理); Founder and CEO | 社長兼最高経営責任者 | Quality Electrodynamics; Chair of the Board of Trustees | クリーブランド・クリニック・ヒルクレスト病院理事長, Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest Hospital; Honorary Consul of Japan in Cleveland

Ellen Van Goethem, Associate Professor of History and History of Ideas, Kyushu University

Andrew Gordon, Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Professor of History, Harvard University

Michael Green, Director of Asian Studies and Chair in Modern and Contemporary Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy, Georgetown University; Senior Vice President for Asia and Japan Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies

Wallace C Gregson Jr, Lieutenant General US Marine Corps (retired), Former Assistant Secretary of Defense, Asian and Pacific Security Affairs

Peter Grilli, President Emeritus, Japan Society of Boston

Susan Hackwood, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Founding Dean, College of Engineering, Director of the Science to Policy (S2P) Certificate Program, University of California, Riverside; Former Executive Director, California Council on Science and Technology

Paul Hastings, Executive Director, Japan ICU Foundation & JICUF Endowment

Yusaku Horiuchi, Professor of Government and Mitsui Professor of Japanese Studies, Dartmouth College

Eiko Ikegami, Walter A. Eberstadt Professor of Sociology Emeritus, The New School for Social Research

Frank Jannuzi, President and CEO, The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation

Yuko Kakazu, Astronomer; Trustee, OIST Foundation

James D Kelly. RADM USN (Ret), President John Manjiro-Whitfield Commemorative Center for International Exchange-U.S. (CIE-US), and Dean Emeritus U.S. Naval War College

Samuel Kidder, Trustee, American Friends of the International House of Japan; Managing Director, FES, Inc.; Former Executive Director, American Chamber of Commerce in Japan

Tomohisa Koyama, Special Advisor to the President, Nagoya University and Executive Director, Technology Partnership of Nagoya University, Inc.

Barak Kushner, Professor of East Asian History, Chair of Japanese Studies, University of Cambridge

Eiichiro Kuwana, President and Founding Principal, Cook Pine Capital

Indra Levy, Executive Director of the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies, Stanford University

Patricia L. Maclachlan, Professor of Government and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Professor of Japanese Studies, University of Texas at Austin

William Marotti, Associate Professor, History; Chair, East Asian Studies MA IDP, UCLA

Mari Maruyama, Executive Director, Obirin Gakuen Foundation of America

Laura Miller, Professor of Anthropology and Eiichi Shibusawa-Seigo Arai Endowed Professor of Japanese Studies, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Samuel Morse, Howard M. And Martha P Mitchell Professor, Departments of Art and the History of Art and Asian Languages and Civilizations (Chair), Amherst College

Diana Helweg Newton, Director of the Tower Scholars Program and Senior Fellow at SMU Tower Center

Mari Noda, Professor of Japanese, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, Ohio State University

Scott North, Director, Osaka University North American Regional Center for Academic Initiatives; Professor Emeritus, Osaka University

Morgan Pitelka, Professor of History and Asian Studies, Chair of the Department of Asian Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Richard Samuels, Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director, Center for International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Former Chair of Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission and U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange

Chelsea Szendi Schieder, Professor, Aoyama Gakuin University

Susan Schmidt, Executive Director, American Association of Teachers of Japanese (AATJ_

Benjamin Self, Vice President, The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation

Michael M. Sera, Sera Consulting, LLC

Ryan Shaffer, President of Japan-America Society of Washington DC

Doug Slaymaker, Professor of Japan Studies, Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures, University of Kentucky

Daniel Sneider, Lecturer, East Asian Studies, Stanford University

David Sneider, Partner, Simpson Thacher and Bartlett LLP

Amy Stanley, Wayne V. Jones III Research Professor of History, Northwestern University

Kathy Tegtmeyer Pak, Professor of Political Science and Asian Studies; Department Chair of Asian Studies, St. Olaf College

Yves Tiberghien, Professor of Political Science, Konwakai Chair in Japanese Research, and Director of the Center for Japanese Research, University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada)

Kurt Tong, Chair, National Association of Japan-America Societies

William M. Tsutsui, President and CEO, Professor of History, Ottawa University

Steven Vogel, Il Han New Chair of Asian Studies, Chair of the Political Economy Program, and Professor of Political Science, UC Berkeley

Donna Vuchinich, Senior Executive Director, Advancement, Simon Fraser University; Former President and CEO, University of Hawaii Foundation

Kären Wigen, Frances & Charles Field Professor in History, Stanford University

Gavin Whitelaw, Executive Director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University

Duncan Ryūken Williams, Professor of Religion, American Studies and Ethnicity and East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Southern California

Julie Meier Wright, Vice Chair, OIST Foundation

P. Yeh, Okinawa Goodwill Ambassador; Chairman of G P Yeh Foundation

Christine Yano, Professor of Anthropology, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, and Chair, Japan Foundation American Advisory Committee

Shay Youngblood, Professor of Creative Writing, City College of New York

James Zumwalt, Chairman of the Board, Japan-America Society of Washington DC

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（仮訳）
日本国内閣総理大臣
岸田文雄殿

私たちは、研究者、大学教員、政策決定に携わる実務家などの立場で、国際交流の橋渡し役として日本の国内外において国際関係及び次世代の日本専門家育成にこれまでのキャリアを通して取り組んできました。この立場から、日本政府の外国人に対する厳しい入国制限に対し深刻な懸念を表明するため、本書簡を提出します。日本の現在の水際対策のもとでは、在留資格を持たない外国人は、たとえワクチン接種と検査による陰性証明がなされ、隔離に応じる意思を持ち、その他全ての公衆衛生上必要な手順に従ったとしても、留学、就労、ビジネス、研究活動、家族訪問を含むいかなる目的での入国も認められていません。このような国境閉鎖措置は、国際社会との関係に悪い影響を与えて日本の国益を毀損しており、観光目的以外での外国人入国が認められるよう一刻も早くこの政策を変更するよう求めます。

先日、故エズラ・ヴォーゲル・ハーバード大学名誉教授の追悼イベントが開催されました。ヴォーゲル教授は、日本研究者として、また米国政府の対日政策に影響を与える立場から、数世代に亘り日本専門家の育成や日米関係の発展に尽力されました。ヴォーゲル氏は、人と人との関係を築くことが極めて重要であるということを一貫して強調し、ご自身も生涯キャリアを通して頻繁に日本を訪問されていました。コロナ禍の過去２年間、このような人と人との関係作りは実質的に一時停止となってしまいました。

昨秋以来、欧州や韓国には留学できても日本には留学できないため、北米の大学生は留学先を変更するだけではなく専攻や語学の選択も変更し始めました。大学院生の間では日本を研究の一環とすることを諦め、外国人研究者の入国が認められている国の研究に切り替える人たちもいます。いずれも今後の人生を左右する決断であり、長期的な影響が危惧されます。

2012年、当時の安倍総理とオバマ大統領は、２国間の学生交流を倍増するという目標に合意し、様々な指標によれば、コロナ禍前の時点で目標はほぼ達成されつつありました。目標達成に向け、日米両国の政府機関や民間団体が多大な資源を投じ、多くの方々が多大な努力をしてきましたが、日本の国境閉鎖措置によりこれまでの労苦が水泡に帰すのではないかと危惧しています。

近年、日本は「自由で開かれたインド太平洋（Free and Open Indo-Pacific）」というビジョンを掲げて国際社会でリーダーシップを発揮してきました。このビジョンの基本理念は「開放性（Openness）」であり、自由貿易や海外直接投資などの経済政策の分野でこの理念を体現する政策を実行することで日本は国際社会に貢献してきました。しかしながら、現行の厳しい国境閉鎖措置はこの外交政策ビジョンに相反するもので、国際社会のリーダーたろうとする日本の国益を損ねかねないと憂慮します。自国民を守るという趣旨は理解しますが、日本の現在の政策は公衆衛生ではなく国籍を強調するものです。日本国民は観光目的の海外渡航すら認められているなか、外国籍の人々は日本にいる家族から切り離され、キャリアや留学先といった将来設計の変更を強いられています。

私たちは日本が国境を完全に開放すること、外国人に緩い入国条件を設定すること、あるいは観光客に門戸を開くことを唱導しているわけではありません。研究者や留学生は観光客ではありません。日本に関心を持ち、日本を理解しようと努め、日本社会に貢献するために多大な時間と労力を費やしてきた人たちです。今後日本と世界の橋渡し役を務める人たちです。将来、政府の政策決定、ビジネス、教育の場などでリーダーとなる人たちです。日米同盟、そして日本の根本的な国益を支える様々な国際協力活動の基盤となるのは、こういった人たちです。

パンデミック発生から２年が経過しました。今後も新たな変異種が定期的に出現することは避けられないでしょう。変異種発生のたびに人と人とのつながりを断ってしまうことは、日本の長期的な国益にとって現実的な戦略とは思えません。この２年間、各国は厳格な国境の出入国管理を導入する一方、安全な入国を可能とするための効果的な入国制限と水際対策を模索してきました。ワクチン接種を義務付けた上での外国人受け入れは、日本の国益にも資すると確信します。将来にわたって日本の国際協力に貢献していく人たちの入国が許可されるよう、日本政府に入国制限と水際対策の早期緩和を強く要望します。

本書簡の内容は、日米次世代パブリック・インテレクチュアル・ネットワークプログラムに加え、日米友好基金、日米交流財団の理事一同、国際交流基金の米国側諮問委員会、ジャパン・ソサエティー（NY）、ワシントンDC日米協会を含む団体の支持を得ています。本書簡はＥメールにて回覧され、賛同者には自ら名前を追加してもらい、署名を集めました。所属先が記載されていますが、署名者は所属先を代表する立場ではなく、個人の立場で署名しています。

2022年1月18日
署名者一同
日米次世代パブリック・インテレクチュアル・ネットワークプログラム（マンスフィールド財団）関係者：