Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said: “The Japanese government will further relax control measures this June to move towards facilitating entry for tourists like in other G7 countries.”
G7 countries such as Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US have all announced they are open to foreign tourists, although entry rules are not uniform. Meanwhile, the US, Canada and Germany require full vaccination while Italy, France and the UK do not.
The Japanese prime minister said the timing of the opening up of tourism would help boost the weakening Japanese yen, adding that Japan's previous strict immigration policies had helped it weather the pandemic better than many other countries. Changes to the country's entry requirements would also be phased in.
Foreign tourists may be able to travel to Japan from next June. Photo: Internet
Since the end of March, Japan has relaxed entry for subjects such as diplomats, businessmen, international students and trainees... but with limited numbers and gradually increasing. Currently, the number of entries per day is only 10,000 people/day. If the Government allows foreign tourists to enter, a proposed plan is to increase the number of allowed entries to 20,000 people/day, then adjust depending on the actual situation.
Currently, Japan still applies some strict regulations for people entering from Europe and some Asian countries such as having a negative PCR test certificate, having the 3rd vaccination dose or being quarantined at designated facilities within 3 days upon entry. Depending on each specific case, there may be no need to quarantine upon entry.
The Japanese government will wait for another two weeks to see the impact of the Golden Week holiday before making a final decision. Japan may also begin reopening to small group tours from late May, followed by general tourism.
Japan is in the final steps before deciding to open tourism.
For many months now, the Japanese tourism industry has been urging the government to allow more foreign tourists to enter the country. The purpose of welcoming tourists to Japan is to gradually stabilize life back to normal, stimulate the tourism industry in particular and the economy in general to recover, contributing to promoting the country's economic growth.
In 2019, tourism contributed $359 billion to Japan's GDP, making it the world's third-largest tourism market after the United States and China. However, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization, largely due to Japan's strict pandemic border measures, the number of foreign visitors has plummeted from nearly 32 million in 2019 to just 250,000 in 2021.
