First Confirmed H1N1 Cases in Japan: Will It Suspend Visa Waiver for Canada?

I didn’t want to make too much of a side issue on my main blog. On the other hand, I don’t want anyone to think that I didn’t give this matter proper consideration, so I’m posting this here.

In a minor dustup here*, Per asked a rhetorical question regarding the United States. Now that the Japanese authorities have announced that three members of a senior-year school trip to Canada who flew back to Narita by way of a transfer in Detroit tested positive for the new H1N1 influenza virus, the question can be addressed on its own merits. Japan has temporarily suspended visa waiver arrangements with Mexico. Namely, should it do likewise for Canada and even the United States?

Of course not. At least not if it were my decision to make. The relative incidence of the new H1N1 virus reports is still much higher in Mexico than Canada or the United States. The discrepancy is likely to be greater if the incidence of unreported cases is taken into consideration. That three residents of Japan contracted the virus in Canada does not change these circumstances.

But what if the number of reports in Canada or United States reaches a figure comparable to that of Mexico when the Japanese authorities suspended waiver arrangements? I doubt that the Japanese authorities will do likewise with regard to Canada or the United States. The number of new Canadian, American and Mexican arrivals in 2007 were, respectively, 150,046, 730,363 and 26,626. Leaving aside the question of unreported cases, it is far less cost-efficient to impose visa requirements on Canadian and American passport holders. Moreover, there will be economic considerations—specifically, the potential drag on tourism and business activities requiring international travel.

But isn’t this discrimination? Yes, but discrimination is inherent to immigration procedures. I know of no state that treats all nationalities equally, and Japan is no exception. Visa waiver arrangements themselves fall unequally on citizens of states subject to such arrangements and those who are not. The question then is, is the suspension warranted in the case of Mexico? Of that, I’m afraid that I have no opinion on it, other than that a visa requirement appears to be plausible as a supplementary pre-screening procedure. At a minimum, it is not to be dismissed as prima facie useless.

The last point is also highly relevant to the matter of taking other competing social and economic interests into consideration. The screening of all entrants including Japanese citizens at the port of entry and the subsequent follow-up are the essential and by far the most important measures being taken to minimize the likelihood of the H1N1 virus slipping through. Suspending visa waivers, being a supplementary measure, is far easier to be discretionary with.

* It may be my imagination, but it seems to me that one of the quickest ways to stir up controversy is to take up an issue that, however tangentially the case may be, casts Japan and China/Korea in different lightly, one less favorably than the other. That, and “Japan is/is not different” narratives.

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I do not have any experience as an immigration or health administrator. Thus, everything that I have written is, at the end of the day, my personal opinion.