Japan to relax border controls, cut quarantine period from March: PM

Japan will ease COVID-19 border controls starting from March by raising the daily entry cap and reducing the quarantine period from seven days to three for both Japanese and foreign nationals, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Thursday.

Japan will adjust its ban on new entrants from the current 3,500 to 5,000 per day starting next month. Foreign nationals will also be allowed to enter the country for purposes other than tourism.

The decision came as the country's entry ban on nonresident foreigners, imposed from late November to the end of February, has sparked strong criticism for being too strict and not based on science.

Upon arrival in Japan, travelers will be asked to quarantine for three days and the period will end after they test negative for COVID-19.

The easing of the entry curbs was approved after the head of an expert panel of the health ministry said Wednesday that the recent surge in COVID-19 cases has likely "peaked" in early February.

The country decided to impose border controls at the end of November in an effort to curb the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Only a fraction of nonresident foreigners wishing to enter Japan have received visas as exceptions. Students, businesspeople, academics and even lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have been strongly urging the Japanese government to ease the restrictions.