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After closing to foreign tourists for more than two years, Japan will allow a wide range of tourists next month – on condition.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Thursday that from June 10, the nation will welcome visitors on guided tours that include transportation and accommodation. Tourists from 98 countries with low levels of coronavirus infection will be allowed; The United States is in this group. The larger reopening in June follows a small experience that allowed about 50 people on organized tours to visit 12 prefectures starting this week.
“Step by step we will strive to accept [tourists] as we did at normal times, given the state of the infections, “he said.
Visitors from low-risk countries will not be required to show proof of vaccination and will not need to be isolated or tested on arrival, regardless of their vaccination status. According to a checklist published by the National Tourism Organization of Japan, travelers must show proof of a negative test within 72 hours of leaving the country.
Japan’s small tourist test will admit 50 foreign travelers
The number of people allowed to enter the country each day will increase to 20,000 from the current ceiling of 10,000. The current number includes business travelers, foreign workers and students, but not tourists.
Japan tightly controlled its borders during the pandemic and continued to ban tourists even after many other Asian destinations began accepting visitors back. With a ban on leisure travelers, only 250,000 visited the country last year, up from more than 30 million a year before the pandemic.
The country’s travel agency estimates that just over 100,000 people visited the country between January and March, compared to more than 8 million in the same period in 2019.
Seino Satoshi, president of the Japan National Tourism Organization, said in a statement that the group is working with local authorities, destination marketing organizations, travel agencies at home and abroad, airlines and others to prepare for incoming travel to begin again.
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“I wholeheartedly welcome the accelerating pace at which the international community is preparing to resume travel for tourism purposes,” he said. “The government has announced a policy for Japan to join these efforts. I take this as a first step towards restoring inbound tourism to Japan.
Peggy Goldman, president and co-owner of Friendly Planet Travel, said on Friday that her company was preparing to bring tourists back to Japan. Given the limitations on how many people can come to the country, she expects her return to begin slowly.
“Honestly, I don’t believe we’ll actually be able to start a solid tour program before next spring,” she said.
“There is a demand,” she said. “We will be able to assess how much demand we have after telling people that we are starting to accept reservations.”
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