Japan to accept tourists from more countries in packaged tours from Jun 10

After two years of closed borders, Japan will accept international travellers again from Jun 10, announced Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the Future of Asia conference in Tokyo on May 26.

Its government previously announced that tourists from some countries would be able to enter Japan when travelling in guided packaged tours as part of a trial programme. These countries were Singapore, Australia, Thailand, and the United States. 

The country has since revised its border controls to accept packaged tours from 32 more countries, including Malaysia and Canada.

The cap on overseas arrivals has also been increased to 20,000 from the current 10,000.

According to Kishida, the Japanese government is making preparations to resume international flight operations at the New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido and Naha Airport in Okinawa by the end of June as well.

Visitors are expected to be triple vaccinated with a booster shot included, and can only travel in guided packaged tours.

Japan’s strict border measures were necessary “to ensure that our medical system was on sound footing and provided time to administer vaccinations,” Kishida said.

“However, from now on, we will further relax our border measures.”