JAPAN. The Japanese government is planning to allow independent tourists to enter the country and exempt them from visas if they have been vaccinated three times or submit a pre-arrival test result. That’s according to a Fuji TV report, quoted by The Japan Times. The television report noted that the country also intends to abolish the daily foreign arrivals cap, which was recently raised to 50,000.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reportedly plans to make a decision as early as the end of this week, with an eye to implementing the revisions during October.
On 7 September, the Japanese government eased entry restrictions for travellers with its new coronavirus countermeasures. Under previous rules, travellers could only visit the country as part of a guided tour.
With a valid vaccination certificate, it is no longer necessary to do a pre-departure PCR test and the maximum number of people to be accepted for entry was increased from 20,000 to 50,000 per day. Visitors from all countries are now allowed to enter Japan as long as their itineraries have been booked through a travel agency.
Japan remains the only one of the G7 countries to have a cap on arrivals, and the new 50,000 daily limit is far behind the 140,000 people who entered Japan on average each day in 2019.
Japan’s moves towards relaxing tourist restrictions are seen as vital by commentators to boost the Japanese economy. The Yen slid to its lowest point against the US Dollar in 24 years last week, dropping as much as -1.7%.
