International border restrictions and quarantine requirements for international travellers have been extensively eased in Australia and Japan recently, and New Zealand has announced that it will follow suit in the next two months. Meanwhile, the number of direct flights between Australia and Japan are slated to increase. We have also heard that some in-person exchange activities, such as home-stay and English study programs in Australia, have started to accept participants from Japan. From the standpoint of international exchange, these are all welcoming news that we have longed to hear.
We anticipate that Australian and New Zealand local governments and schools that have Japanese partners would gradually and carefully plan for the resumption of in-person exchange activities to further their partnerships and compensate for the missed opportunities in the past two years. It may be a good idea to explore in-person exchange opportunities while continuing online exchange activities.
Needless to say, we still need to make every effort to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus, as the omicron variant and its sub-variant BA.2 are highly infectious. The COVID-19 situation can deteriorate if we were to take any inappropriate actions in the planning and implementation of the resumed exchange activities. All in-person exchange activities should be executed in a COVID safe manner to prevent the spread of the virus.
We hope that your organisation would thoroughly discuss with your Japanese partners, when and how to proceed with the resumption of in-person exchange activities, and how to maximise the benefits of these activities while conducting them in a COVID safe manner. Everyone involved in any upcoming in-person exchange may unexpectedly come across new findings and rediscover the positive effects of exchange through the resumption of in-person exchange activities after two long years of suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
