In his speech yesterday, Prime Minister Kishida said that he would ease immigration restrictions in June, on par with other G7 countries.
According to the newspapers, the outline of the plan has been finalized.
The major changes are that tourists will be allowed to enter the country and that some countries will be exempted from virus testing.
However, there are some conditions: the vaccination must be completed and the tour must be a group tour.
Individuals and group tourists are not eligible. It is also reported that the number of vaccinations must be three.
Probably because there would be a domestic outcry if two vaccinations were allowed for tourists from abroad, given that the condition for Japanese returnees not to be required to wait is that they be vaccinated three times.
The number of visitors is also expected to be limited to 20,000 per day, which is likely to be related to the capacity of the inspection at the time of entry.
Although limited to group tours, this is good news for the Japanese domestic tourism industry as well as for foreigners who want to visit Japan with a weak yen.
As these deregulations progress, it will become easier for Japanese nationals to go abroad and come back.
I sincerely hope that the day will come soon when we can travel to and from overseas without having to go through the hassle of the formalities.
