Chapter 5
Japan's Diplomacy Open to the Public
Section 2 Supporting Japanese Nationals Overseas
1 Risks and Safety of Japanese Nationals Overseas
(1) Incidents and Accidents in 2020 and Countermeasures
As of 2019, approximately 20 million Japanese nationals1 travelled overseas over the course of the year, and approximately 1.41 million Japanese nationals live abroad (as of October 2019). Hence, protecting the lives and health of Japanese nationals traveling and residing abroad, as well as promoting their interests, is one of the most important missions of MOFA.
No Japanese nationals were the victims of terrorism incidents in 2020, but a large number of terrorist attacks continued to occur in various regions. The main terrorism incidents included a fatal knife attack in a suburb of Paris, France (January), a knife attack in South London, UK (February), a suicide bombing near the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia (March), a fatal knife attack in Romans-sur-Isere, France (April), an attack on police officers in a Paris suburb (April), car crash incidents on an expressway in Berlin, Germany (August), a knife attack in front of the former head office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris (September), the murder of a teacher in a Paris suburb (October), a fatal knife attack in Nice, France (October), a shooting in Vienna, Austria (November), and a bombing at a ceremony venue in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (November).
Regions where terrorist attacks have occurred in recent years are not limited to the Middle East and Africa alone – they are widening to Europe, the U.S. and Asia, regions where many Japanese travel and reside. Homegrown terrorism perpetrated by those born in Western countries and indoctrinated through websites or other means by foreign Islamic extremists, and lone-wolf terrorism perpetrated by those acting on their own with little organizational background are occurring in large numbers, but terrorist attacks believed to be backed by organizations such as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have also been occurring, such as the shooting incident in Vienna in November. Additionally, there continues to be a large number of terrorist attacks occurring that are aimed at “soft targets” – locations where unspecified numbers of the general public gather every day.
In 2020, the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) meant the number of people traveling overseas fell substantially. The number of incidents in which Japanese nationals fell victim to crimes consequently also declined compared to normal years. Nevertheless, incidents involving Japanese being killed in robberies have been occurring worldwide.
Furthermore, accompanying the spread of COVID-19 from China to the rest of the world, anti-Asian sentiment has been witnessed in a number of countries, and in some instances Japanese nationals have suffered attacks.
Many natural disasters also occurred around the world and caused great damage. These included a volcanic eruption on Luzon in the Philippines in January, cyclone “Linfa” in May, theAegean Sea earthquake in October, and hurricane “Eta” in November.
Additionally, in 2020, large-scale protests were held successively in Hong Kong, the U.S. and other parts of the world, resulting in MOFA utilizing its Overseas Safety website and other channels to call on Japanese nationals to avoid going near demonstrations and protests. Depending on the regional circumstances, and as occasion demanded, MOFA also published overseas travel safety information concerning countries and regions where particular caution was conceivably needed when traveling and residing. In 2020, MOFA raised the risk levels for Ethiopia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Cote d'Ivoire, among others.
As was the case in the previous year, there were continued reports of people falling ill during a trip abroad and dying at the hotels or other accommodations they were staying at. In some of these accidents and illnesses, victims faced difficulties in dealing with higher medical and transportation costs, and receiving insufficient medical services compared to those in Japan.
Whenever necessary, MOFA issues overseas travel safety information on infectious diseases, air pollution and other risks in countries and regions where health and medical caution is required, in order to communicate the current outbreak situation and prevention measures, and highlight matters worth paying attention to when travelling and staying in the affected regions.
Since the end of 2019, the COVID-19 outbreak that began in China has raged across the world. In response, MOFA has been disseminating information such as Travel Advice and Warning on Infectious Diseases and Spot Safety Information to Japanese nationals residing or traveling abroad and raising their awareness in a timely and appropriate manner, via its website and e-mails. In addition, MOFA used government charter flights to repatriate Japanese nationals and others who had been residing in Hubei Province, China. MOFA had also succeeded in bringing back a total of over 12,000 Japanese nationals from 101 countries with the support of Japanese Embassies and Consulates-General there by the end of November (see the Opening Special Feature on page 2)
As for other infectious diseases, cases of Ebola were reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, and measles was prevalent in various parts of the world. In addition, cases of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) continue to be reported in the Middle East. Mosquito-borne diseases, including the Zika virus, yellow fever, dengue fever and malaria, also continued to spread throughout the world.
1 Source: Ministry of Justice, “Statistics on Legal Migrants”
(2) Safety Measures for Japanese Nationals Overseas
The number of incidents of Japanese nationals receiving support or protection from Japanese diplomatic missions overseas and the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association fell marginally in 2019, to 20,295 cases involving a total of 21,175 people.
However, threats to the safety of Japanese nationals occur constantly in various regions throughout the world. Since the beginning of 2020 in particular, Japanese nationals traveling abroad are being required to respond appropriately to complex risks such as infectious diseases and terrorism, amid entry and movement restrictions imposed on the travelers of various countries and various constraints such as reduced flights that have accompanied the spread of COVID-19. In addition, because it is becoming more difficult than ever before to respond in cases where such travelers are unfortunate enough to encounter a terrorist attack or other incident or accident while overseas, the need for every possible effort to be expended on overseas safety measures is increasing all the more.
Based on this perspective, MOFA works to enhance the safety awareness of Japanese nationals and promote its safety measures by disseminating information widely to the general public.
Specifically, MOFA issues the latest safety information for each country and region on the Overseas Safety website, and emails the latest safety information on travel destinations and places of residence to Japanese nationals who are staying overseas and have Overseas Residential Registrations, and short-term travelers who have registered with Tabi-Regi, MOFA's overseas travel registration system.
MOFA Overseas Travel Registration “Tabi-Regi”
https://www.ezairyu.mofa.go.jp/tabireg/index.html
(only in the Japanese language)
MOFA Overseas Safety App
Overseas safety website “About the Overseas Safety App”
Can be downloaded from: (https://www.anzen.mofa.go.jp/c_info/oshirase_kaian_app.html)
(only in the Japanese language)
MOFA strives to enhance the knowledge and capability of the Japanese people concerning overseas safety measures and crisis management through seminars and trainings. In 2020, in order to address the need for safety measures under the global spread of COVID-19, MOFA hosted safety measure seminars inside and outside Japan, and also dispatched lecturers from the Consular Affairs Bureau to deliver lectures on safety measures at seminars held throughout Japan by domestic organizations, associations and other groups (ten times overseas and seven times within Japan).
In addition, even overseas, the public and private sectors are cooperating to advance safety measures, and the diplomatic missions in each country host regular meetings of Security Consultation and Liaison Committees. Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the diplomatic missions overseas are continuing to share information, exchange opinions and bolster collaboration in preparation for emergencies with local Japanese nationals in their respective countries, including by hosting such events online.
The terrorist attack in Dhaka in July 2016 brought renewed recognition for rising awareness among international cooperation personnel, as well as small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), students studying abroad and short-term travelers, who have limited access to information on safety. In light of that, where SMEs were concerned, MOFA promoted awareness through Golgo 13's Security Guidelines for Japanese SMEs Abroad, which uses manga (comics) to explain basic safety measures for companies in an easy-to-understand manner.
Furthermore, with regard to Japanese students studying overseas, MOFA personnel are holding lectures at universities and other educational institutions, on the grounds that many such institutions have not accumulated sufficient expertise or experience on safety measures and dealing with emergency situations. Requests for lectures from educational institutions declined in 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19, but MOFA nevertheless continues to strive to help those institutions to raise awareness of safety measures among their students and build in-house crisis management structures, including by holding online lectures on safety measures. MOFA is moving ahead with efforts to connect government agencies with educational institutions, overseas study agencies and students studying abroad, by beginning automatic Tabi-Regi registration system with some overseas study institutions.
As for safety measures for short-term travelers, MOFA is engaged in PR activities mainly focused on promoting registration to the above-mentioned Tabi-Regi, including by distributing information cards and the Kaigai Anzen Tora no Maki (handbook for overseas travelers).
As of November 2020, the number of travelers who had registered on Tabi-Regi since its launch in July 2014 exceeded 6.67 million, reflecting initiatives for enhancing the system's convenience and activities which aim at promoting registration.