Japan to start easing entry restrictions for foreign travelers next month, prime mister promises

Says Japan’s coronavirus countermeasures have proven successful.

Since you’re reading SoraNews24, we’re going to go out on a limb and guess that you’re interested in Japan, and would like to come to the country to see it for yourself. Unfortunately, if you’re a tourist, that hasn’t really been an option for the last two years-plus. Early in the pandemic, Japan enacted some of the strictest entry restrictions in the world in regards to inbound foreign travelers, and while those protocols have been relaxed for business and academic travelers, if you’re one of the many overseas Japanophiles wanting to come here on a leisure trip, you’re still out of luck.

But the good news is that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s gotten a little brighter with a speech made by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

▼ This speech

“Even looking at it in global terms, Japan’s coronavirus countermeasures have proven successful,” Kishida said confidently in Japanese during a speech he gave in London on Thursday afternoon. The more impactful statement, though, came later in the speech when he said:

“In June, we will further relaxing border control measures so that it will become possible for entry into Japan to be smooth on the level of other G7 countries.”

The official English version of Kishida’s statements, provided by the Prime Minister’s Office, rendered this part of his speech as:

“We have now eased border control measures significantly, with the next easing taking place in June, when Japan will introduce a smoother entry process similar to that of other G7 members.”

While there’re some discrepancies between the two versions, and an unfortunate lack of details as to specific policy revisions and dates on which they will go into effect, Kishida sounds firm in his resolve to put the wheels in motion to make entry in to Japan easier this summer. With foreign citizens entering Japan on work or study visas already being allowed in, tourists would seem to be the logical next group to be given a path by which to enter Japan, and hopefully we’ll get to see all of you who’ve been waiting for that day for so long again very soon.

Source: FNN Prime Online, YouTube/ANNnewsCH, Nikkei Asia
Top image: Pakutaso
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