Japan's omicron travel ban strands caregivers and farmers

Labor shortage lingers while foreign workers await entry into country

20211213 Narita airport

Narita Airport, Japan's main international gateway, is eerily quiet on Dec. 2 amid efforts to limit COVID-19 cases by closing the country to foreigners. © AP

NANA SHIBATA, Nikkei staff writer

TOKYO -- Concern is growing in Japan's farming and nursing care communities now that the government has again closed the border, this time in an attempt to keep the omicron variant at bay.

How successful the closure will be is anyone's guess, but there is no doubt it will keep out the migrant workers that care facilities and farmers have come to rely on.

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