Dubious legal foundation for Japan's quarantine rules

Forced confinement by bureaucratic fiat sets a dangerous precedent

Stephen Givens

January 10, 2022 05:00 JST

A staff member helps a passenger prepare their documents during the quarantine process at the Narita International Airport on Dec. 1, 2021: there is a big hole in the Quarantine Act, and the government knows it. © Kyodo

Stephen Givens is a corporate lawyer based in Tokyo.

Six days of enforced quarantine without the consolation of alcohol in a business hotel in Ibaraki Prefecture following my return from a Christmas visit to the U.S. have supplied ample time and motivation for me, an American lawyer who has spent his career in Japan, to reflect anew on the chasm in assumptions that separates Japan's legal system from my own.