Japan further eases entry rules for foreigners

TOKYO: Japan will no longer require foreign visitors to show a pre-departure negative Covid-19 test result before being allowed into the country.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that starting Sept 7, all they needed to show was proof that they have been vaccinated three times.

The latest easing of entry rules comes as the government also mulls on whether to raise the daily entry cap from 20,000 to 50,000.

According to a Kyodo News report, Kishida said the government will also change the detailed Covid-19 reporting system, limiting it to the elderly and those at risk of developing severe symptoms.

It will also be at the discretion of each municipality hit by surging coronavirus infections but authorities will still report the total number of daily positive cases.

The change in the reporting system is to reduce the burden on hospitals and local health centres as the Omicron strain caused new cases to reach record highs and stretched the country's medical system.

The Kyodo News report said that medical facilities in Japan were currently required to report details on positive cases, including their names and birthdays, by entering the data into a system shared with public health centres.

However, as the current dominant Omicron variant has a lesser risk of causing severe symptoms, officials have questioned the need to log every case.

"The battle against the virus is not easy, but we should not be overly worried," Kishida said in an online press conference as he too is in isolation after testing positive for Covid-19.

"We will take into consideration the characteristics of the changing Omicron variant and accelerate efforts to take antivirus measures while keeping social and economic activity going as much as possible," he added.

Japan's current 20,000 cap on new arrivals was set in June and this includes Japanese citizens returning from overseas.

The country's easing of rules started after many businesses and travellers complained that it was too stringent and not in line with other Group of Seven nations.

Japan has also allowed in foreign tourists but they needed to be on package tours. The Asahi Shimbun reports that the latest easing will now allow entry to unsupervised tourist groups.

Currently, foreign tourists are only allowed to visit Japan by joining organised tours with conductors but this is set to change.

Before the pandemic started, Japan saw around 32 million foreign visitors in 2019 but it plunged to around 246,000 in 2021 amid the border controls.

Sources said other measures to relax controls may include shortening the isolation period for those who have tested positive for Covid-19, from the current 10 days to seven days.

They said the government was also considering classifying Covid-19 as similar to the seasonal flu if the virus' severity reduces.

Meanwhile in another development, Japan has eased its Covid-19 travel warning for 54 countries and a region, including Indonesia and the Philippines.

With this, authorities will also no longer ask residents in Japan to refrain from non-essential trips to those nations.

Kyodo News said that the Foreign Ministry lowered the travel advisory for those areas from the second lowest Level 2 on its four-point scale to Level 1.

A Level 1 advisory asks Japanese nationals travelling to those regions to "stay fully alert."

Twenty-three countries and a region from the Middle East and Africa, such as Egypt and South Africa, were newly designated as Level 1. Eleven European nations including Ukraine and Russia, 10 Asian and Pacific countries such as Pakistan and Myanmar as well as 10 in Latin America were also newly designated as Level 1, according to the ministry.

Thirty-five areas including Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Turkey remained under the Level 2 advisory.

The total number of areas under the Level 1 category now stands at 125, while those at Level 2 have declined to 76. No nations fall into Level 3 and 4.

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