(Bloomberg) — Japan is set to allow in some package tourists from overseas starting June 6, broadcaster TV Asahi reported Thursday, in the latest step to ease controls that were introduced in a bid to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
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The Mainichi newspaper reported separately that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will make an announcement on the move as soon as Thursday. Neither outlet specified where they obtained the information.
Japan has already announced it would double its cap on overseas arrivals to 20,000 a day starting next month, far below the levels seen before the pandemic. Kishida pledged in a London speech to make it as easy to enter Japan as other Group of Seven wealthy nations.
Kishida has come under pressure from business lobbies to further open the borders, as the travel industry is losing out on what could have been a windfall from the weak yen. The premier must at the same time avoid alienating a public wary of the potential health implications ahead of a July election for the upper house of parliament.
A poll published by the Mainichi newspaper at the weekend found 43% of respondents were in favor of relaxing border controls, while 41% were against the idea.
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Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said this month that the easing of restrictions would mean about 80% of arrivals would be able to enter the country without undergoing testing on arrival, or quarantine.
Countries and regions will be divided into three categories — red, yellow and blue — depending on their assessed virus risk, according to a joint statement from the Foreign Ministry and other ministries.
Travelers arriving from countries or regions on the blue list would be able to bypass quarantine as long as they pass a pre-departure PCR test, according to the Foreign Ministry. Those on the yellow list would require proof of vaccination with selected vaccines to skip quarantine. The South China Morning Post reported Thursday that Japan is considering putting Hong Kong on the blue list, citing an unidentified person.
The move comes after the government allowed some small package tours for overseas visitors to be conducted on a trial basis this month.
Japan has fared relatively well during the pandemic, recording just over 30,000 deaths from the virus so far, compared with about 179,000 in the UK, which has a population approximately half as large.
(Updates with quarantine categories and a media report on plans for Hong Kong’s status.)
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