COVID19 Update in Japan

2021.04.17

COVID-19

Japan is still closing its border to foreign travelers. Those who are allowed to enter Japan are limited to, such as, nationals of Japan, their spouses or children, and those with a Special Permanent Residence Permit. Passengers are required to present a negative COVID test result with a designated format, taken within72 hours before departure from the first leg flight. Upon arrival, PCR test will be conducted at airport and 14-day quarantine is required.

Japan had lifting all emergency declarations domestically which lasted a several weeks and is accelerating vaccination efforts. However, Japan is still not completely optimistic as some prefectures, such as Osaka and Miyagi, see increasing number of new corona cases. We hope the expansion of the vaccine eligibility on April 12th to the public, 65 years old or older, would help to reverse the trend.

While we are not sure when Japan will start easing the restrictions, we expect the “business track” (allows non-Japanese business travelers from certain country to enter Japan) to be resumed first then the travel restrictions will be lifted incrementally later this year.

We will update Japan’s travel restrictions in the next newsletter.