NHK and the Nikkei Asia website reported last week that, The Japanese government is planning to further ease border controls against infection and allow tourists to enter Japan without a “sponsor” or contact from a domestic travel agency. The government also plans to reinstate short-term visa exemptions for tourists from 70 countries and plans to remove daily entry caps. NHK said the changes could take effect as early as October. The Japanese government has raised the maximum number of allowed entries per day to 14 , September 7th. The government has also started accepting tourists who do not have a personal guide. However, a tourism ministry official said at the time that tourists would still need a “sponsor” or a travel agency contact in Japan to be allowed into the country.
The government has also waived the requirement for travellers to provide a negative COVID certificate – 000 Test that they have received at least three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine (including a booster).
Japan begins to ease COVID-19 restrictions on foreign students and businesses 000 Entry restrictions for travelers on March 1 (if they have a sponsor). In addition, the government has increased the number of people allowed to enter from 3 (the sum of Japanese and foreigners), 500 to 5, 000 daily, and shortened the COVID-19 quarantine period to seven to three days. The government then raised the daily cap to seven 50 in March 10 , then to 10,000 in April 10.
The government subsequently opened tours to guided tours in June 10, and set the maximum number of allowed entry into the country per day from 10, to20,000 people.
Border control measures started last November in response to Omicron variant COVID- Global dissemination . The Japanese government also extended border restrictions until February, barring new foreign arrivals in an effort to curb the spread of the outbreak.
Japan banned all foreign tourists from entering the country at the beginning of the outbreak.
Source: Nikkei Asia (Hiroyuki Akiyama), NHK World Japan
