The Japanese government said Wednesday that it would remove the entry restriction on 106 nations, sparking confusion on social media and offering false hope that tourists would be let into the country.
When pressed to clarify the statement, a Justice Ministry official stated, "In actuality, there would be no change in who can visit Japan. As a result of this adjustment, entry to Japan will not be available to anyone new."
Researchers, foreign students, and business visitors who have been permitted to enter the country since March 1 will be able to do so again, but travelers will be denied entry.
This latest case demonstrates how difficult it is to negotiate Japan's bureaucratic entrance rules, which have caused misunderstanding among foreigners throughout the outbreak.
The government said in a statement sent by the Cabinet Office's National Security Bureau and posted on the Foreign Ministry's website that the ban on 106 nations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, will be lifted on Friday.
Except in exceptional instances, such as the spouse of a Japanese national, people coming from nations where the Foreign Ministry has administered travel alerts due to the spread of an infectious disease are barred from entering.
The alert levels vary from 1 (low) to 4 (high). The Justice Ministry immediately restricts entries from nations with a level 3 or above designation and vice versa.
The recent modification was based on the Foreign Ministry decreasing the warning level of those 106 countries on April 1, the official reports. However, because the Foreign Ministry continues to restrict visa issuance at foreign embassies, Japan will limit who is allowed to enter the country.
Throughout the pandemic, Japan has kept a tight grip on its borders, though most of its neighbors have already reduced travel restrictions -- except China due to their pressing situation.
Since the outbreak, at least one in every 19 Japanese residents has been infected with the coronavirus, a much lower rate than in most other developed countries.
Hence, Koichi Wada, the chairman of Japan's tourist agency, told Parliament last month that it's incredibly difficult to foresee the long-term trends for inbound tourism.
In April 2020, Japan closed its borders to foreigners and just recently reopened them to foreign students, academics, and laborers. As of now, there is a daily maximum of 7,000 international arrivals, but the government aims to increase this to 10,000 on Monday.
