Japan extends ban on entry for tourists

The Japanese government willfurther extendits entry ban on non-resident foreigners until the end of February, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said this week.

The ban has been in place sinceNov 30 after the country confirmed its first case of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

Kishida recently told a FujiTVprogramme thatthe government would decide whether to continuewith the current strict border controlsafter the three-day weekend which ended on Monday.

He told reporters yesterday morning that “the framework [of the current border controls] will be maintained until the end of February”.

The government introducedmeasures initially for about a month by barring entries for non-resident foreigners and requiring returning Japanese nationals and foreign residents to quarantine in governmentdesignated facilities. Kishida later said thatthe measures would be extended “for thetime being” past early

January. KYODO NEWS