Nearly two and a half years after it instituted some of the world's tightest border controls, Japan said on Thursday that it would finally welcome back most tourists next month.
In New York for the U.N. General Assembly, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that on October 11th, Japan will allow tourists to move freely throughout the country.
Mr. Kishida said that people around the world had been asking when they could visit Japan. I hope they will go to Japan and try out Japanese cuisine.
Two other major Asian holdouts were about to lift some of their border restrictions. Taiwan said on Thursday that it would end the three-day quark for visitors by October 13th. Hong Kong was expected to make a similar move on Friday.
Almost everyone who wasn't a citizen was locked out of Japan when it shut its borders after the Pandemic hit. It has taken a long time for the borders to be reopened after nearly all other nations had done so.
The decision to open the borders comes as Covid cases in Japan have dropped to their lowest numbers in months, and as the country's currency is near a quarter century low.
The government hopes that the plunge in the Japanese currency will make it more attractive to tourists. The Japanese currency hovered around 142 to the dollar on Friday.
International tourism has become an important industry for Japan, which promoted travel to the country in the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics, originally scheduled for August 2020 but held a year later.
The number of international tourists to Japan tripled from six years ago.
It was nearly impossible to get a visa for business after the country banned most travel from abroad. Hundreds of thousands of foreign residents were locked out of their homes for months.
The country reopened after vaccinations were available. Business and study travel returned this spring. People who took strictly controlled package tours were the only ones who enjoyed tourism.
Business leaders pressed the government to reopen even as they argued that Japan was behind the rest of the Group of 7 developed nations in lifting restrictions.
Critics said the government's decision to keep restrictions in place was based on politics, not science, and warned that Japan would descend into the sort of isolation that had marked earlier periods of its history.
The reopening could provide a much needed boost to the country's hard-hit travel and hotel sectors.
It's not likely that inbound tourism will approach prepandemic levels in the near future. Chinese tourists, who accounted for 30 percent of inbound tourism, are limited in their ability to travel under Beijing's anti-covid policies. China is the last major country to keep its borders closed to prevent the spread of the disease.
Japanese residents will be offered government-subsidized discounts for hotels, restaurants, and entertainment in order to encourage tourism. After the Pandemic wiped out domestic tourism, his predecessor introduced a plan known as "Go to Travel."
Travelers who wish to enter Japan need to show proof that they have received three shots of a coronaviruses vaccine or have a negative test taken before they leave for Japan.
Hisako Ueno made a report.
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