Attitudes on the entry ban in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract Japan had one of the most restrictive entry bans between 2020 and 2023 to curb the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). While there was critical coverage of this entry ban by foreign media, how did Japanese citizens perceive these restrictions? We fielded a survey in February 2022 with 6,033 respondents, in which we asked the respondents whether they supported the ban and what types of foreigners they would support getting entry to the country. Our results show that the overall level of support for the ban was very high. Those with a stronger sense of ethnic identity expressed a higher level of support, although those with more of a civic sense of national identity were also supportive of the ban. Furthermore, while the respondents were more likely to tolerate the entry of foreign spouses of Japanese citizens and resident foreigners compared to the other immigrant types, even the supporters for the admission of the spouse category were only barely a majority. In sum, our data show that Japanese citizens were uniformly negative against any entries by non-Japanese citizens into Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic.