COVID-19 policy and health measures

The following policy applies to all attendees attending RubyKaigi 2022 in-person, including speakers, organizers, and booth staff.

In summary:

• Masks are always required. We encourage use of disposable masks.
• All attendees have to pass daily temperature check. Check-in to the reception desk everyday.

We’re continuously monitoring the situation of COVID-19 and considering changes in the policy as needed. We’ll announce any changes in this policy at our Twitter and in emails.

Vaccination

All attendees are recommended to be fully vaccinated.

The vaccination requirement is now lifted.

Exposure Notification App

All attendees should install and activate the COCOA app (新型コロナウイルス接触確認アプリ; COVID-19 Contact-Confirming Application) to their smartphone.

At the venue

Temperature check

We’ll conduct daily temperature check for all attendees.

All attendees have to check-in once a day at the reception desk for temperature check. Please come to the reception before going to the conference halls, foyer and sponsor booths.

Masks

All attendees must wear a mask at the conference venue, even at outside. Masks may be removed while eating and drinking.

Attendees may provide their own mask, or use a mask provided by the conference. Conference staff may ask you to replace a mask if the mask considered not complying with our policy.

And speakers may remove their mask when giving a talk during their session, if they are on a stage alone.

Masks have to cover your nose and mouth. Face shields, bandannas, and masks with ventilation are not allowed. We encourage use of disposable masks instead of reusable ones and you may be asked to replace if you’re using a reusable one.

Social distancing

All attendees should maintain social distancing (staying away at least 1m from other people) while at the conference venue.

Maximum occupancy

The maximum occupancy of all rooms are limited to approximately 60%. Attendee may not be able to enter a smaller track room while it is fully occupied.

The Middle Auditorium (#rubykaigiB) will work as a overflow session room for keynote sessions; We’ll play a live stream of #rubykaigiA in #rubykaigiB while #rubykaigiB has no dedicated session.

You’ll be directed to go #rubykaigiB while #rubykaigiA is fully occupied.

Other measures

• Hand sanitizers are available throughout the conference venue.
• RubyKaigi will regularly conduct sanitizing of shared items and desks in the venue where possible.

Positive case reports during conference

We plan to announce existence of positive cases and possible close contacts on Twitter, and relevant Email list as soon as we acknowledge them. People who tested positive or identified as a close contact, are not allowed to enter the venue.

Unless we’re instructed to cancel the in-person conference from government agency, or the venue, we plan to continue the conference normally.

If we need to cancel the in-person conference, we would switch the conference to full-virtual and the further access to the venue would be restricted to the speakers and conference staff. And we don’t refund any tickets for this case.

If you tested positive, or identified as a close contact

Please report to 2022@rubykaigi.org. We never share the details of the case to other attendees. The only exception is the requests from government agencies; see below.

Note that we don’t allow people who tested positive or a possible close contact, and we’ll offer partial refund for them.

Privacy

We may provide a contact list of all attendees to government agencies when requested, in case of COVID-19 suspicious breakout at the conference.

https://www.ppc.go.jp/news/careful_information/covid-19/

Non Japan based attendees

First of all, we really hesitate to say this, but: we don’t recommend attending RubyKaigi 2022 in-person, from abroad.

We’ll have a virtual venue and full live stream coverage, please register yourself as a virtual attendee instead of in-person attendee.

Because Japanese government maintains strict border restriction policy and changes in the policy can happen suddenly, including visa. Entry to Japan can be restricted at any time. Thus it is not recommended to plan visiting the conference from abroad early, as of this writing.

However, we don’t decline entry of people coming from abroad as long as they are complying with this policy and the government quarantine policy; and due to the govermental restriction, we can’t sponsor Japanese visa for attending RubyKaigi 2022 in-person. If you plan to attend from abroad, please be aware of this situation.

Travel Advise as of 28 July

Everyone without a residential visa or Japanese passport are still difficult to enter Japan. We had expected the governmental restriction would be relaxed in July, but unfortunately the restrictive policy is still in effect; including suspension of visa waiver program. Refer to https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/covid-19/border_newentry.html about the current procedure for new entries of foreign nationals.

The current policy for people without a residential visa or Japanese passport (“foreign nationals”) requires: Obtaining short-term visa, and applying to ERFS system https://entry.hco.mhlw.go.jp/. A Japanese legal entity must submit ERFS application to become a receiving organization who are required to own responsibility of applicants’ whole travel in Japan, including ensuring compliance with the government’s COVID-19 related policies.

While we’re disappointed on the current government policies, we again regret to say this: we lack bandwidth to support this for all attendees travelling from abroad. We’re currently exploring a way to support this for our speakers for RubyKaigi 2022 and will make an announcement soon.

Violation

Violations against this policy, including failure to comply, may result into a ban from the conference venue or decline of entry. We do not refund any ticket even in case of policy violation.

Revision

• 6 September 2022: Several updates.
  • We’ll do daily temperture check for all attendees.
  • Clarified that we encourage use of disposable masks than reusable ones. You may be asked to replace with a disposable one if you’re using it.
  • #rubykaigiB will work as a overflow session room when necessary.
• 28 July 2022: Lifted the vaccination requirement; Added the travel guide from abroad; Noted the temperture check may be conducted. Reasons of lifting;
  • We initially declared the strict policy as it is uneasy to tighten after opening the registration.
  • This requirement is now considered uneffective and useless while it involves complex process on onsite registration; Effectivity of vaccination are decreasing due to time and appearance of new variants. We also had believed updated version of vaccines for the latest variants of COVID-19 to come and/or wide availability of 4th shot, but both didn’t happen.
  • However we still recommend all attendees to take vaccines.
• 17 May 2022: Approved COVID-19 vaccine information has been updated, aligning with government policy; https://corona.go.jp/package/assets/pdf/jimu_foreign-governments_sesshureki_20220404.pdf and https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/000901651.pdf
• March 2022: Initial version.