File photo: People disinfect their hands while a thermal camera reads their temperature at the entrance of a department store on the first day of Japan's closed borders to prevent the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant, in Tokyo, 30 November 2021;
Credit: Reuters / Androniki Christodoulou
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will further ease border controls from 7 September 2022 by raising the ceiling for daily entrants to 50,000 and freeing up entry for travellers from all countries on package tours without the need for guides, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday 31 August 2022.
Speaking to reporters after returning to work from a COVID-19 infection, Prime Minister Kishida said Japan will proceed with further easing steps, taking into account virus infections in and outside of the country, travellers' demand and border controls adopted by other countries.
"From the standpoint of making use of merits from the weak yen, we'll ease border controls further", Prime Minister Kishida told reporters.
Japan's yen has been trading at its lowest in more than 20 years against the United States (US) dollar and other major currencies, a potential boom for Japanese businesses exposed to international tourism.
Japan began a phased reopening to tourists in June after a more than two-year ban. But visitor arrivals had been limited to 20,000 per day and had to be part of packaged tours accompanied by guides at all times to ensure compliance with infection controls.
Prime Minister Kishida has pledged to bring Japan's border measures, among the strictest in the world during the pandemic, more in line with other wealthy democracies.
