[0]: https://today.yougov.com/topics/travel/articles-reports/2021...
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/about-us/reports-...
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/have-pa...
> 21,995,760 (includes 3,361,037 passport cards)
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/need-pa...
Not sure what the other stats are counting as passports and if they're double-counting or not.
You can also get two passport books--basically for visiting countries that may do visa stamps and which won't admit people with the "wrong" visa stamp--which is what I was talking about.
A common problem for those that do training/sales around the world for short trips.
Sometimes quite amazing how long an embassy can take when it’s one of the country’s big industries you’re heading to to train them on the expensive thing they surely want to maintain…
Pre-pandemic, I canceled a couple of trips to India for visa issues--wouldn't get back in time for other trips--although my understanding is the situation has improved.
- When needing a passport while the other passport was in visa processing
- When needing to travel to a country A that denies entry based on having a passport stamp from country B. Like Azerbaijan/Armenia and Israel/Some Arab countries.
For a while my family of four had seven passports, though three of those would be counted for Japan.
Edit, it took me so long to post this I was beaten to it by 12 minutes.
[0]: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/about-us/reports-...
[1]: https://www.census.gov/popclock/
[2]: https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/distribution-by-ci...
Not all drivers licenses meet that criteria, but a passport does.
Which law says that?
It is possible to fly domestic without ID. I did it twice and TSA had me sign a form which basically self-declared that I am not a problem.
The ID check is to make it difficult to resell frequent flier award travel. So the TSA ID-checkers are the airline's revenue helpers.
Last summer I put a bunch of transparent tape over the picture on my passport to see what would happen with TSA. The TSA lady asked me to peel it off. That was going slowly so she called a supervisor who quickly waved me through.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/01/11/the-sh...
For non-citizens the numbers are even higher and they're not evenly distributed by state. Last I checked almost two thirds of Californians had valid passports, whereas states like Arkansas were more in line with the Japanese rate.
[1] https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/travel/CA-By-the-Number...
[2] https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/about-us/reports-...
As a native English speaker, especially if you travel mostly to Europe or generally urban/tourist track areas elsewhere, it's pretty easy to get the impression that an at least minimally resourceful and adaptable person can generally get by even without English-speaking guides and other travel resources. But that's not really true for a lot of people in other countries, especially if their languages don't use Roman script and they don't really know any foreign languages.
I have some eastern euro relatives that owe their English skill (moreso vocab than grammar) to local-language subtitled TV/movies (too poor to dub).
Can confirm, it was the same for me and many of my peers when growing up (and video games for those that partook). However today everything is dubbed on TV, your only chance of subtitles to learn is on new releases in the cinemas.
One of the things I found that made Japan remarkable was how easy it was to get around as a non-Japanese speaker. Until you end up off the mainline tourist bits, then things can get quickly pretty dicey. I don't think the inverse is true for the average Japanese person in even the most tourist friendly spots elsewhere. Everywhere is opaque, and there aren't enough Japanese speaking tourists to make it worthwhile to add it to all of the signage and menus to make it work out.
Foreign countries are dangerous, compared to Japan. You can see it in all the national crime rates. Only a few places are as safe, such as Singapore, and some rich micronations in Europe.
That said, every place in the US is generally less safe than many other countries just because of the usage of cars, and their typical high speeds compared to other places. Over 30k people die in the US every year in car crashes. Usually, people think of crime when the word "unsafe" is used, but they forget all the danger with cars.
(Australia is 40% direct migrant, or children of migrants. There is often a lot of tension over which non-anglo community now has financial muscle, buys homes, sets cultural trends. It's been about Italy, The Balts, Greeks, Lebanese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese. The New Zealanders mostly sailed under the radar until a recent government started cancelling residency visa left right and centre for crimes of one kind or another and ANZUS as a political belief in unity across the tasman sea died a bit.)
The last decade or so has seen throngs of PRC tourists, seemingly less concerned with photo-documenting the world than with seeking out brand name merchandise.
I don't think germophobia is an adequate explanation for increased reluctance to travel, at least for the Japanese. For one thing, they tend to be more influenced by the risk of enduring any kind of hassles in travel, which have increased dramatically since 9/11. For another thing, the shine of popular destinations has worn off somewhat in the last few years. I've heard from talking to/about university students in South Korea that the heavily negative social news about the USA has caused travel there to lose much of its appeal.
I’ve traveled around with Japanese and they definitely appreciate cleanliness and politeness more than any others. I’ve had multiple Japanese people cry saying how lucky they are to have been born in Japan when they have a short stay in pretty well off countries.
This doesn’t mean that they can’t be dirty, I’ve seen bones for ramen cracked on the streets here. Just that they appreciate cleanliness a lot. I think red mold popping up everywhere all the time makes you more careful, at least I became more aware after moving here.
There's also the higher than normal risk of needing medical treatment in a country with either higher medical costs or lower healthcare quality.
In my country of birth, covid treatment is free* in state owned hospitals for citizens and non citizens. But it's not the case in other countries.
*Taxpayer funded
Which is partly just wealth, but also just variation in how aware people are of the outside world. Few people are going to visit a country they have no interest in, and can't locate on a map.
https://www.fairwork.gov.au/tools-and-resources/library/K600...
I suspect this varies by state, but the idea that sick leave for teachers is lacking has never been a common theme for any of the teachers in my family.
For the rest of the world, the idea that an employer can arbitrarily decide it is not possible for someone to be ill more than a certain number of days per year is bonkers.