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Japanese Government announces borders will reopen to vaccinated tourists from 11th October

Japanese Government announces borders will reopen to vaccinated tourists from 11th October
September 25, 2022

Japan has announced it will lift tough Covid restrictions on foreign visitors, reopening its borders to vaccinated tourists after two and a half years of pandemic closures.

Having maintained some of the strictest border measures among major economies since the onset of COVID-19, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Thursday that rules restricting tourists to package tours will be scrapped from next month.

Speaking at the New York Stock Exchange where he explained that the pandemic had interrupted the free flow of people, goods and capital that drives his nation’s economy, Prime Minister Kishida declared “from 11th October, Japan will relax border control measures to be on par with the US, as well as resume visa-free travel and individual travel.”

The announcement will see the world’s third-largest economy reopen to mass tourism, becoming one of the last economies to restart large-scale tourism and travel, with only China yet to announce plans to lift its strict border controls.

Under a partial easing of restrictions in place since June, Japan has been allowing tourists on package tours to enter the country and has a cap on daily arrivals, currently set at 50,000. Travellers to the country must also apply for a visa.

The strict restrictions have led foreign tourists to largely shun the country, with just about 8,000 international visitors arriving in July, compared with some 3 million during the same month in 2019.

Tourism operators and business groups had called on the Japanese Government to reopen the borders, warning Japan could be left behind as the rest of the world learns to live with the virus.

Despite its isolation, Japan recorded some of the highest numbers of COVID cases in the world last month, with daily infections topping 250,000, although the country’s cumulative death toll remains among the lowest worldwide.

Welcoming the easing of border restrictions, Shinichi Inoue, President of All Nippon Airways, told reporters on Friday “we will see a significant impact on the economy”, adding that a recent decline in the value of the yen's against the US dollar is a "huge attraction" to foreigners.

Also on Friday the Hong Kong Government announced it would end mandatory hotel quarantine, scrapping some of the world’s toughest travel restrictions that have impacted the economy and kept the finance hub internationally isolated.

Image: Hirado Castle in Japan's Nagasaki Prefecture. Credit: JNTO/Hirado City.

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