Japan to open borders to foreign tourists in June

TOKYO - Japan will open its borders to foreign tourists in June for the first time since the introduction of tight travel restrictions two years ago, but only for package tours, the prime minister said Thursday.

Beginning June 10, Japan will allow entry of people on tours with fixed schedules and guides, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said.

Tourists with low coronaviruses infection rates who have received three vaccine doses will be exempt from testing and quarantine after entry.

Japan is hosting small experimental package tours from four countries, Australia, Singapore, Thailand and the United States this week. It's going to end May 31 and involves only 50 people who received special visas, not tourist visas.

Japan loosened its restrictions earlier this year, allowing entry of up to 10,000 people a day, including Japanese citizens and foreign students, as well as some business travelers, after facing criticism that its strict border controls were xenophobic.

Makoto Shimoaraiso, a Cabinet official who is responsible for the pandemic measures, said Japan will double the cap to 20,000 a day starting June 1, which will include package tour participants.

The scale of package tours and other details will be finalized after officials evaluate the results of the current experimental tours.

It will take some time before foreign visitors can come to Japan for individual tourism, according to Shimoaraiso.

Japan's tourism industry, hit hard by border controls, is eager for foreign tourism to resume. Since the beginning of this year, coronaviruses have slowed in Japan and the government is gradually expanding social and economic activity.

Kishida said he planned to relax the border controls as early as June in line with the policies of other Group of Seven industrialized countries, but gave no more details during a visit to London this month.

Foreign tourist arrivals fell more than 90 percent in 2020 from a record 31.9 million the year before, almost wiping out the pre-pandemic inbound tourism market of more than 4 trillion yen $31 billion.