Japan Post Office suspends all foreign shipping per April 2nd

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Due to the Covid19 crisis, Japan Post has suspended all foreign parcel shipping effective April 2nd, today.
Items submitted for shipping will be returned to their senders.
There is no end date for this measure known yet.

https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/2020/0401_02_en.html

I was sent this link by an eBay seller when attempting to purchase an item.

I'm not aware if this is just Japan Post, or other shippers too. Thought I'd let the forum know.

Stay healthy, #socialdistancing
 
Everything is coming to a halt... no surprise really

One positive, Will help those suffering from gear compulsion
 
helenhill said:
Everything is coming to a halt... no surprise really

One positive, Will help those suffering from gear compulsion
Click to expand...

Like any addict, I don’t want help with my gear compulsion:) That’s absolutely the last thing I want.

I’ve had 3 lenses on my current ebay watch list, all from Japan as usual, and had a shiver of dread go down my spine when I saw this notice this morning.
Oh, no!
I can’t go anywhere, there’s no toilet paper, I’m afraid to touch anything in a public place, I keep touching my face, I think I have already watched every movie ever made, at least once, my other fallback position of watching sports isn’t happening because sports are not happening, tv programming is uniformly awful, and one of the sole remaining venues providing (false but believable) hope was browsing ebay and pondering the momentary joy afforded by the dopamine hit of opening a package from Japan containing that shiny new lens I will sell off next year.
Now this! Say it isn’t so!
 
@AAlfano

i cut and pasted
your flickr link so your Photo could show
looks like You were having Trouble

Do hope thats ok with You ... wonderful shot !
 
Well, looks like we're fine here in Australia, as well as you Americans and Canadians. Thanks Jon.
It's interesting how the list is actually of countries that are apparently refusing to accept mail from Japan, and presumably other countries.
 
Freakscene said:
Thanks jonmanjiro. Do you have any idea what this is based on? It seems mail to Australia, for example, where I live, is uninterrupted.

Marty
Click to expand...

Marty, the Japanese webpage is much clearer than the (poorly translated) English webpage. Google does a better job (see below - slightly tweaked by me).

https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/2020/0401_02.html

「新型コロナウイルス感染症の世界的蔓延に伴い、各国・地域において、国際郵便物の受入停止等の措置が取られていることおよび日本との間で発着する航空機が大幅に減便・運休となり、輸送ルートが途絶えていることから、4月2日（木）から当分の間、別紙（PDF30kバイト）のとおり、一部の国際郵便物のお引受けを一時停止させていただきます。」

"With the worldwide spread of the new coronavirus infectious disease, each country and region is taking measures such as suspending international mail, and the number of aircraft arriving and departing from Japan is either is significantly reduced or operation is suspended. Due to interruptions in transportation routes, we are temporarily suspending the acceptance of some international mail from April 2 (Thursday) as shown in the attached sheet (PDF 30k bytes)."
 
Larry Cloetta said:
Like any addict, I don’t want help with my gear compulsion:) That’s absolutely the last thing I want.

I’ve had 3 lenses on my current ebay watch list, all from Japan as usual, and had a shiver of dread go down my spine when I saw this notice this morning.
Oh, no!
I can’t go anywhere, there’s no toilet paper, I’m afraid to touch anything in a public place, I keep touching my face, I think I have already watched every movie ever made, at least once, my other fallback position of watching sports isn’t happening because sports are not happening, tv programming is uniformly awful, and one of the sole remaining venues providing (false but believable) hope was browsing ebay and pondering the momentary joy afforded by the dopamine hit of opening a package from Japan containing that shiny new lens I will sell off next year.
Now this! Say it isn’t so!
Click to expand...

Well put, Larry. I might like to sell a thing or two, but if someone buys something, then I have to take it to the post office, or FedEx. Risk! I did sell one thing, took it to FedEx, and was Impressed they have the floor marked off with tape at six foot intervals. My item was pre-paid so I only had to lay it on the counter and leave. I haven't been out of the house in a week. Well, I walk the dog.

It is serious. The virus can live on your mail for about a day. We are going to set mail aside for a day before touching it. Be very careful, everyone!
 
I'm trying to resist my lifelong attacks of GAS, but I also want to do what I can to help small online sellers stay in business and move their stocks. Not the profiteers - but the toilet paper crisis has passed here, supermarkets and shops are full of the stuff again, and the bog paper fortune-sellers seem to have almost all disappeared from Ebay, well and good!!

On the other hand, I have two small orders on the way from Britain and China, small items I've wanted to buy for some time, and now the sellers have slightly reduced their prices which makes those photo bits even better value. Well and good. Win-win all the way.

Australia postal services are still open and functioning, in a way - in the past year our home mail delivery has been cut back to three days a week (Saturday mail went the way of the dinosaurs long time) and I'm now finding even Australia Post's once-excellent parcel home delivery service seems to be staffed by zombies who haven't the faintest idea about how to read maps or internet directions. To the point that I now have all my bought items insured and sadly, I've had to collect from the insurers or cancel Paypal payments for non-delivery as much as I've had items safely brought to my door. 21st century progress, sure...!

I reckon it's a given that some postal services from overseas will be suspended, I hope only temporarily. We live in crazy times and such inconveniences are to be expected.

On a more positive note, I'm saving money - also busy with an inventory of my photo gear at home, which has turned up a few unexpected (or forgotten) surprises in my many boxes, including an incomplete kit of the Rollei item I ordered from the UK. One lives and one learns. Old dogs, new tricks...
 
Archlich said:
I just hope the Japanese people well.

Good lord that's some time they've wasted.
Click to expand...

Time wasted? How so? Considering we had our first Covid-19 case confirmed on January 16 and first death confirmed on February 13 (both in Kanagawa Prefecture where Yokohama is located), and we still have yet to experience an explosion in infections or related deaths, I'd say Japan has done a pretty good job so far. That may well change soon though, as we've seen a rise in the number of infections in recent weeks in no small part due to infected people bringing the virus home with them from Europe and the US.
 
a) If you refuse testing on a large scale you will have a small number of infected. b) If you are in danger of being accused of bringing trouble to your co-workers and the company's wealth by stupidly getting infected with Covid-19 you will think twice before visiting a doc or are better of by going to work coughing and tell everyone that you got a cold or suffer from hay fever.

jonmanjiro said:
Time wasted? How so? Considering we had our first Covid-19 case confirmed on January 16 and first death confirmed on February 13 (both in Kanagawa Prefecture where Yokohama is located), and we still have yet to experience an explosion in infections or related deaths, I'd say Japan has done a pretty good job so far. That may well change soon though, as we've seen a rise in the number of infections in recent weeks in no small part due to infected people bringing the virus home with them from Europe and the US.
Click to expand...
 
maddoc said:
a) If you refuse testing on a large scale you will have a small number of infected. b) If you are in danger of being accused of bringing trouble to your co-workers and the company's wealth by stupidly getting infected with Covid-19 you will think twice before visiting a doc or are better of by going to work coughing and tell everyone that you got a cold or suffer from hay fever.
Click to expand...


a) Sure. I was pretty skeptical about Japan's response too (trying to salvage the Olympics etc etc) but there is a strategy, i.e. focus testing and resources to where they're needed. As of now we still don't have an overflowing hospital system running beyond capacity, or morgues filling up Bergamo style, or people keeling over in the streets/on the trains.

b) Previously, maybe so. But I think we're in a whole new Covid-19 world now. My company in Tokyo has a very clear policy - if you have any symptoms whatsoever #staythefcukhome

The documentary linked below is a good explainer of the Japanese response so far, something that the Japanese government has a done a woeful job of conveying. Sure things could be done better (more accessible testing etc.) but there is a strategy and it appears to have worked so far.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/5001289/
 
jonmanjiro said:
Time wasted? How so? Considering we had our first Covid-19 case confirmed on January 16 and first death confirmed on February 13 (both in Kanagawa Prefecture where Yokohama is located), and we still have yet to experience an explosion in infections or related deaths, I'd say Japan has done a pretty good job so far. That may well change soon though, as we've seen a rise in the number of infections in recent weeks in no small part due to infected people bringing the virus home with them from Europe and the US.
Click to expand...

You can only get as much confirmed cases as your testing capacity allows. Prioritizing on the "undertest to protect medical capacity" thing can be a grave mistake. It's pure wishful thinking since it only keeps the statistics at bay (every country can claim "look at how much better we're doing than the US" now), not the virus.

Japan took little containment measures early on to actually stop the virus from spreading. And since it's not testing enough, the current confirmed cases have little value which in turn rendered health experts and policy makers blindfold on the "real" current scale of the virus spreading - and when they did see that stifled number grow and scramble to change their tactics, it's too late. This is where we're at now.

In contrast, South Korea (now universally recognized as a golden standard) had been aggressively testing since day 1 to push the confirmed cases as close to the "real number" as possible so that they can have a clear picture on where to put in pinpoint quarantine measures. This enabled them not having to enact a full-on lock down like China did in Wuhan (where there was so much community spread that they basically had to assume everyone's sick).

Containment, mass testing, contact-tracing and treatment - this is by far the only proven protocol in curbing the virus. Dully do them all as early and/or as aggressive as possible (I mean look at Korea and China), and you'll be doing a good job; skip one or procrastinate, you're in for big, huge, gigantic trouble in the near future. I don't think Japan had been particularly aggressive into any of these categories in the past 2 months.

These are just my 2 cents. I suggest Dr. John Campbell's videos on youtube that are professional, pragmatic and well presented for a better understanding on this topic. He had been following this pandemic since late January.

As the saying goes: pray for the best, prepare for the worst. I have many correspondents in Japan, and I genuinely hope my assumption is wrong and everything would be fine in another month or two. But I just can't take my eyes away from the cold, hard curve...
 
Things will become interesting from next week when school starts again. Double as now packed trains/subways with kids on their way to school in the morning. I can't see how this combined with the reluctance of companies to allow staff doing work from home shows any good strategy against spreading the virus. To me it seems the only problem the government sees is a decrease of the economy.
 
Archlich said:
Japan took little containment measures. Since it's not testing enough, they have been blindfold on the scale of the virus spreading.
Click to expand...

The picture could certainly be clearer, but blindfolded? If that was the case, why do will still not have an overflowing hospital system running beyond capacity, or morgues filling up Bergamo style, or people keeling over in the streets/on the trains?

I think Taiwan is actually the gold standard, though Korea's effort is impressive. And the number of tests Germany is now doing weekly is really something. But its easy to become an armchair expert after watching a few youtube vidoes :)

Disclaimer: I've been following Chris Martenson at Peak Prosperity blog since forever. He started discussing Covid-19 on January 13 and started videos dedicated to it on January 23rd. Gave me a chance to stock up on face masks and other essentials before the panic buying hit. I've also watched multiple videos by Dr. John Campbell. Very informative.
 
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