Japan set to welcome back foreign tourists as Covid-19 restrictions ease

After restricting international travel for more than two years because of the coronavirus pandemic, Japan is getting ready to welcome tourists again.

Starting next month, holidaymakers will be welcome to explore Tokyo’s neon streets, Kyoto’s ancient temples and the slopes of Mount Fuji.

The Japanese government aims to ease restrictions on foreign travellers, with no quarantine or self-isolation requirements for fully vaccinated tourists from next month.

New rules from authorities will also allow up to 20,000 visitors from overseas to fly to the country each day, Kyodo News reported.

That figure is double the number of people previously allowed to travel to the country for business and to study.

The updated rules on arrivals will be enforced from next month, Kyodo News reported last week, quoting a government source.

The news comes after Japan’s Golden Week holidays, which ended with Children’s Day on May 5.

During this period, authorities examined airport quarantine centres and monitored domestic Covid-19 infections to assess whether the country was ready to embrace international travel again.

Japan has restricted tourism since the early days of the pandemic. Even as much of the world started to open borders again, the country stayed firmly closed to foreign travellers. Tourists and sports fans were barred from attending the Tokyo Olympics last summer and the country only opened to business travellers and those on student visas late last year.

In March, Japan reopened to all new foreign arrivals, except international tourists.

Plans are in place for the return of tourism, with travellers considered to be fully vaccinated if they have received three doses of a recognised Covid-19 vaccine.

The country will first reopen to small tour groups with fixed itineraries before resuming general tourism, Bloomberg reported.

More than 80 per cent of Japan’s population is vaccinated against Covid-19, data from Johns Hopkins University shows. That is higher than the average global rate of immunisation.

There will be no selfisolation or quarantine for fully vaccinated travellers visiting Japan from June