Tourist wait in line to receive tickets for Japan at Gimpo International Airport, Seoul, Tuesday. The banner on the right reads "Travel to Japan, again." (Im Se-jun/The Korea Herald)
The Japanese government resumed visa waiver programs for 68
countries and regions Tuesday, lifting COVID-19-induced restrictions for South
Koreans visiting Japan.
With the visa waiver program reinstated, visitors from 68
countries and regions are able to stay in Japan for up to 90 days without a
visa. The upper limit of people entering the country per day -- set at 50,000
-- has also been abolished, and individual visitors coming for sightseeing are
now allowed.
Antivirus measures remain in place. When entering Japan,
visitors must submit a certificate that proves they have been vaccinated at
least three times or a negative test result within 72 hours before leaving the
country of departure. Additional testing and quarantine are not necessary.
The new measures come two years and seven months since Japan
banned visa-free entry to Koreans and suspended the validity of existing visas
on March 9, 2020. That was extended to other countries and regions a while
after. At that time, the Korean government strongly criticized Japan’s decision
as a unilateral measure without consultation, labeling the decision
“unreliable," and responded in kind.
Japan has been gradually reopening the door to foreign
visitors since March, allowing international students and visitors on business.
In June, Japan began accepting group tourists. The Korean government has
temporarily allowed visa-free visits of Japanese travelers since August, and
this measure will be continued through the end of October.
As the resumption of visa-free entries has coincided with a
weakening yen, demand for travel in Japan is expected to soar rapidly.
According to the Nikkei daily on Tuesday, reservations for
international flights to Japan between November and December have surged almost
three times compared to September. The paper also delivered local think tank
Daiwa Institute of Research's report, which expects that if the yen exchange
rate per dollar is maintained as low as 145 yen, foreign tourists' consumption
will reach 5.7 trillion yen ($39 billion) a year.
Yomiuri Shimbun said on Monday that Japanese travel
reservation site KKday, which has 7 million members from across Asia, received
20 times more reservations from Korea in September compared to the previous
month. Hana Tour, a Korean travel agency, also saw an enormous 776.6 percent
increase in travel reservations to Japan from Sept. 1 to Sept. 22, compared to
August.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has already shown the
will to accelerate economic recovery through enhancing tourism. "I will
revive tourism and maximize the strength of weak yen by resuming visa-free
travel. The foreign visitors’ travel consumption will exceed 5 trillion yen a
year," Kishida said in an address to Japan's parliament on Oct. 3.
The Japanese government will also implement measures to
support domestic travel of Japanese citizens from Tuesday, mainly to support
the tourism, accommodations and food industries that have suffered during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The policy, called "National Travel Support,"
provides up to 8,000 yen to one tourist per day in case the person has reserved
both transportation and accommodations, or up to 5,000 yen per day for tourists
who have only reserved accommodations. Vouchers worth 3,000 yen on weekdays and
1,000 yen on holidays will be provided for use at restaurants around tourist
spots.
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