The Japanese government plans to relax the COVID-19 border rules in October and restore it to a level close to the pre-pandemic level.
It will be open to accepting independent tourists, allowing tourists such as the United States to stay for short-term visa-free. It will also cancel the daily cap on the number of people entering Japan, and seek to obtain economic benefits from foreigners visiting Japan.
Previously, the Japanese border control allowed a maximum of 50,000 visitors a day and it required a tour group booking that did not allow visitors to freely travel outside of the stipulated itinerary.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will announce the above measures soon. The specific relaxation period of the border rules will be determined after observing the COVID-19 situation in Japan and abroad. Certain conditions, such as vaccination, will remain.
In view of the depreciation of the yen against the US dollar against 140 yen in the exchange rate, Japan is striving to obtain tourism demand in autumn and winter. At present, the peak of the ” seventh wave” of new infections in Japan has passed, showing a decreasing trend.
Previously, the Japanese government suspended the entry of foreigners in principle in late November 2021 . Since March , business people and international students have been allowed to enter on the condition that the receiving unit manages it, while tourists have been allowed to enter only for group tours accompanied by guides since June, and the relaxation of COVID-19 control has been opened in stages.
The Japanese government has previously declared that starting from September 7, as long as 3 shots of the vaccine have been administered there will be no need for a negative certificate of testing. The maximum number of arrivals has been increased from 20,000 to 50,000 a day, and it has also restarted accepting group tourists without a guide.
In the next stage, the lifting of visa exemption and free travel will be combined with the measures to cancel the upper limit of the number of people entering the country.
Before the epidemic, Japan exempted visas for short-term stays (up to 90 days) in 68 countries and regions including the United States. At present, all foreigners are required to obtain visas, and the procedures are time-consuming and become an obstacle to visiting Japan.
Kishida mentioned the recovery of inbound tourists at the economic and financial consultation meeting on September 14, saying that “relevant measures need to be taken to strengthen the ability to make money that can take advantage of the current yen depreciation.”