Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has officially announced the new border measures for foreigners who would like to enter Japan, which will take effect from March 1, 2022. Foreigners will be permitted to enter Japan for purposes except tourism (which is what many had expected).

Here’s what border measures will look like starting on March 1st:
– Daily arrival caps (Japanese citizens and foreigners alike) will be increased to 5,000 per day
– Foreign arrivals will be required to be under the supervision of a person or an organization responsible for the visit. Tourists will still be denied entry for the time being.
– Quarantine will remain at seven days, however, those who test negative for COVID-19 after three days and meet certain other conditions will be eligible to end their quarantine early
– Those who have received three shots of a COVID-19 vaccine AND are arriving from a location deemed low-risk for COVID by the Japanese government will not have to quarantine at all

Note: There will probably be some other requirements forthcoming that are not in the initial news reports. I will do my best to update this article as additional information becomes available.

It is a fine line that Prime Minister Kishida has been toeing with regard to the border issue. Public support for the strict border measures seems to be softening in Japan; 81% of respondents in a December NHK poll supported the border restrictions, but an NHK poll released earlier this week showed that number dropped to 57%.

A number of businesses and institutions have welcomed the eased border restrictions. Some have complained that the cap of 5,000 daily arrivals is too low, as there is a backlog of around 400,000 foreigners—including some 147,000 students—waiting to enter the country, according to government numbers. Some political observers were also quoted as saying that opening the borders to tourism before an Upper House election in July would be “difficult.”

I, for one, am happy and relieved that Japan is reopening the spigot slowly, and finally allowing those who absolutely need to travel to the country to do so – especially the students that will go on to help shape many futures. I am eagerly looking forward to more updates as the situation hopefully continues to improve.

As always, I’ll provide further updates on the border measures as necessary. Otherwise, I don’t anticipate writing many posts… especially about travel tips, as there is still no tourism to be had.

Thanks for your continued support of this blog!