In its latest bid to return to normal, Japan earlier today lowered a number of existing travel advisories for seven countries in Asia plus Australia and New Zealand.
The nations in Asia were Taiwan, Thailand, China, South Korea, Singapore, Brunei and Vietnam.
Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi attributed the move to the number of new coronavirus infections in the counties listed to be on the decline.
Taiwan yesterday marked its 200th day with no domestic transmissions of the virus, the first country in the world to achieve this number.
152 other nations and regions around the world remain at Japan’s Level 3 advisory, including Jordan and Myanmar – both added today – with travel not recommended.
Speaking of the nations Japanese are now free to travel to, Motegi said, “We will lift the travel alerts for all regions as regular international flights have started to resume.”
Japan was one of the first countries in the world to look beyond the pandemic when new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga took over from Shinzo Abe last month.
At the time he started to prioritise the nation’s economic recovery with reciprocal business travel arrangements with a number of nearby countries one of the first things to benefit.
Speaking after the announcement, the Japanese Foreign Minister said that Vietnam was the latest nation to have agreed that business travel could resume – from Sunday.
As part of the relaxation on travel, those visiting Japan will no longer need to go through a 14-day quarantine upon arrival – something already a possibility for citizens and long term residents – as long as they provide a negative test reading and provide travel itineraries to authorities.
