Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida said that Japan could reopen to foreign visitors in June.
Japan aims to ease its border control restrictions and reopen its borders to international tourists in June, just in time for the summer season. The announcement was made on Thursday by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a City of London Corporation event held in the capital. “We will further relax controls, so that in June it will be possible to enter the country as smoothly as other G7 nations,” declared the prime minister.
We will further relax controls, so that in June it will be possible to enter the country as smoothly as other G7 nations.
Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida
However, it is not clear what this statement exactly means, since entry requirements across G7 countries are different. Some nations, such as the United States, Canada and Germany, require international tourists to be fully vaccinated to cross borders, while other countries, including Italy, France and the United Kingdom, no longer require proof of vaccination.
During a press conference held on Thursday, Kishida declared that entry requirements to Japan will be changed in stages. Before making a final decision, the Japanese government will wait two weeks to see the impact of the Golden Week holidays, which ended on May 5th. According to The Japan Times, Japan may first reopen only to small tour groups before opening again for all tourism.
Before the pandemic, Japan was the world’s third-largest tourism market only after the United States and China. In 2019, tourism contributed $359 billion USD to Japan’s GDP. However, due to Japan’s strict border measures, the number of foreign tourists dropped from about 32 million in 2019 to just 250,000 in 2021, reported the Japan National Tourism Organization.
Asian countries have been much more cautious in reopening their borders to foreign visitors compared to the rest of the world. However, a growing number of Asian nations—including India, South Korea, the Philippines and Malaysia—have recently welcomed back vaccinated travelers. Now, Japan decided to follow suit, in the hope of bolstering the weakened Japanese yen. According to Japan’s prime minister, Japan’s strict entry rules have helped the country cope with Covid-19 better than several other nations.
According to Johns Hopkins University data, Japan has recorded less than 30,000 casualties since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic (23.5 deaths per 100,000 residents). In contrast, the United States has recorded more than 1 million deaths from Covid-19 (302.5 deaths per 100,000 residents).
