Is it Safe to Travel to Japan

Is it safe to travel to Japan. A lot of people have been asking me this question lately. The March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster, along with fears of aftershocks and radiation from the Fukushima nuclear reactor has been deterring tourist from travelling to Japan. Japan was hurt badly by the disaster but Japan needs tourists to help it heal. Before the disaster, Japan was on a high and experiencing its most tourists on record in the first two months of the year. In March the figure fell drastically due to the disaster. Let’s get back to the key question here, is it safe to travel to Japan. Japan was hit hard by the disaster, but only 0.1 per cent of Japan was affected by the tsunami and the area that was affected is not a popular destination for tourists to Japan. Most tourists to Japan either visit the ski resorts in the north island of Hokkaido, which was not affected, or follow the “Golden Route” from Tokyo along the southeast coast to Hiroshima. The route include Hakone, Nagoya, and the traditional cities of Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and Okayama. Most tourist attractions in Japan are now open, although some may have shortened opening hours to conserve power. All international airports are operating and this even includes Sendai Airport, which was damaged by the tsunami, and the bullet trains are all running as normal.

With all this occurring, tourists are still unsure whether or not to visit Japan mainly due to lack of information and not researching. The smart people who have done their research realize that Japan is pretty safe to visit.

This is my submission to the 2011 Special Edition of J-Festa

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