The anti-infection border restrictions will be further loosened and visitors will be allowed to enter Japan without “sponsors” or a travel agency contact within the nation, according to the announcement made by the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a news conference in New York on Thursday. The administration also intends to reinstate the short-term visa waivers for travelers from 70 different nations.
On October 11, Kishida also disclosed a plan for national travel assistance and event business discounts.
Beginning on September 7, the Japanese government increased the daily cap on entry to 50,000. Additionally, the government started to permit travelers without local advisers. However, a representative of the tourism ministry claimed at the time that foreign visitors would still need “sponsors” or a contact at a Japanese travel agency in order to enter the nation.
Additionally, if a passenger has gotten at least three doses of the COVID-19 vaccination, the government will not need them to show documentation of a negative COVID-19 test (including one booster).
Beginning on March 1, Japan’s COVID-19 entrance limitations for foreign students and business visitors (if they have sponsors) started to loosen. The government also reduced the COVID-19 quarantine period from seven to three days, and raised the number of persons (including Japanese and foreign citizens) who are permitted to enter from 3,500 to 5,000 each day. The daily quota was then increased by the government to 7,000 on March 14 and then to 10,000 on April 10.
After that, on June 10, the government only authorized guided tour groups to go, and it increased the daily cap on visitors from 10,000 to 20,000.
The border security measure, which went into effect in November, was a response to the COVID-19 Omicron variant’s global emergence. In attempt to stop the spread, the Japanese government had also prolonged the border restrictions through February and put a moratorium on new foreign arrivals.
Early in the epidemic in 2020, Japan forbade access to any and all international visitors.