While not yet officially announced, the Japan government is expected to allow independent tourists to come to Japan with Visa on Arrival if they have been vaccinated three times. Further, they will also abandon the daily arrival cap, currently set as 50,000 passengers per day. Lastly, they will end the requirement of “joining a packaged tour” instead of the usual independent travel most visitors to Japan prefer.
This pre-announcement, made by the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara to Fuji TV, will likely be followed by an official announcement by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida within a week or so. The expectation is the new requirements will go into effect as early as October.
While most other countries have removed border restrictions already, Japan has moved slowly, taking baby steps with little impact, and not committed to fully reopening to all tourists and other short term visitors.
Japan previously increased the daily arrival cap from less than 5,000 earlier in the year with gradual increases to reach the current level of 50,000 it stands at now. However, with other visa restrictions in place, there hasn’t been enough demand from visitors to meet the cap, giving it little practical meaning.
Strict tour groups had been permitted since June, but with very limited freedom, and not much interest from travelers, they had little impact on improving tourism. Even travel agencies, expected to have benefited from this policy, admit that most foreign tourists have little interest in joining this kind of restricted travel.
Hopefully, once the official announcement is made, Japan can take a larger step towards returning to normalcy. The idea that foreigners were contributing to the spread of Covid-19 has been proven false, as despite strict border controls, the spread of Covid in 2022 reached its highest levels yet.