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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Japan eases border restrictions, allows package tours
People yesterday walk along a shopping street in Tokyo’s Asakusa area. Photo: EPA-EFE
/ AP, TOKYO
Japan yesterday eased its border controls for foreign tourists and began accepting applications, but only for those on guided package tours who are willing to follow mask-wearing and other COVID-19 curbs, as the country cautiously tries to balance business and infection worries.
Yesterday was the first day to start procedures needed for entry, and arrivals are not expected until late this month at the earliest, even though airport immigration and quarantine offices stood by for any possible arrivals.
The Japan Tourism Agency says tours are being accepted from 98 countries and regions, including the US, Britain, China, South Korea, Thailand and Singapore, which are deemed as having low infection risks.
Japan’s partial resumption of international tourism is carried out under guidelines based on an experiment conducted late laagest month. It involved about 50 participants, mostly tour agency employees from Australia, Singapore, Thailand and the US.
In one case, a tour for a four-member group was canceled when one of the participants tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving in Japan.
Under the guidelines, participants are requested to wear masks most of the time and to purchase insurance to cover medical costs in case they contract COVID-19. The rules do not set a cap for the number of people in one group, but tour guides must be present throughout the tour.
Daily LIMIT OF 20,000
After facing criticism that its strict border controls were xenophobic, Japan began easing restrictions earlier this year. On Wednesday last week, it doubled its cap on daily entries to 20,000 people a day, including Japanese, foreign students and some business travelers.
The daily limit is to include the package tour participants for the time being, and officials say it would take some time before foreign visitors can visit Japan for free, individual tourism.
Japan’s inbound tourism business has laid dormant during the COVID-19 pandemic, and even though the country welcomes tourists and their spending, infection concerns persist among Japanese, especially in popular tourist destinations.
Unlike most Western countries where mask-wearing has largely been abandoned, most people continue to wear them even in situations, such as outdoors in uncrowded settings, where they are no longer requested.
Japan is still reporting more than 10,000 new COVID-19 cases daily, though the number in Tokyo is below 2,000.
The latest mask-wearing rules call for people to wear them on public transportation systems, in hospitals and other public facilities. People can doff their masks outdoors when others are not around or talking loudly.
It is unclear how popular the package tours options would be with foreign tourists, most of whom have to apply for tourist visas that can take weeks to obtain.
However, the yen is trading at 20-year lows against the US dollar and is weak against other major currencies, which would make traveling in the high-cost country something of a bargain.
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 （US$30 billion）.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
