Japan is opening up again. Since Tuesday, October 11, visitors from 68 countries can enter the Archipelago without a visa, on the sole condition of having a document attesting to a triple vaccination against Covid-19 or the negative result of a PCR test. made within seventy-two hours of departure.
Tourists will nevertheless have to deal with wearing a mask which is still widely used. The country encourages wearing it indoors and refraining from speaking loudly. On Friday, October 7, the Japanese government approved a strengthening of the regulatory framework for hotels, which allows them to refuse customers who do not comply with the controls in place during a pandemic.
As of April 2020, Japan suspended its visa-free entry permits for nationals of the states most affected by the health crisis. As of August 2021, the measure had been extended to 159 countries and territories. The various waves of a virus which infected 21.5 million Japanese and caused the death of 45,500 patients have fueled the reluctance of the authorities and the population to welcome tourists again.
Still a popular destination
From May, the reopening was done in stages, and the acceptance of visitors on organized trips, within the limit of 20,000 per day. These provisions, coupled with “states of emergency” requiring the Japanese to limit their movements to stem the spread of Covid-19, have dealt a severe blow to the tourist industry. Just over half a million visitors came in 2022, far from the record of 31.8 million reached in 2019.
Highly anticipated by the tourism sector, the return of foreigners raises great hopes for the world’s third largest economy, whose growth reached 3.5% year-on-year between April and June, but whose forecasts for the 2022 financial year are regularly reviewed. on the decline. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida set an annual tourism spending target of 5 trillion yen (35.4 billion euros) on Monday, October 3, more than in 2019. For the government, the sector remains “a key to regional development” and a way to“to improve the image of Japan in the world”.
The Archipelago took advantage of these years of closure to develop electronic payment services, a mini-revolution in a country where the use of cash remains high
The destination is still very popular. The airline JAL has seen its bookings triple since the announcement of the reopening of borders. And the Archipelago took advantage of these years of closure to develop electronic payment services and applications for taxis, a mini-revolution in a country where the use of cash remains high.
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