Japan set to lift visa requirements and daily arrival cap from October

Earlier this week came news that Japan could lift its remaining restrictions on tourism, with a potential implementation date from October 2022. This would involve removing the daily arrival cap, scrapping mandatory tourist visas, and allowing independent travel to resume. 

It looks like things are shaping up nicely indeed, with media reports that the daily arrival cap and visa requirement will soon be gone. 

Japan to scrap daily arrival cap and visa requirement

As per a report in Nikkei (paywalled, you can also read it on Straits Times), Japan is expected to scrap its daily arrival cap and restore its visa waiver programme imminently. 

For context, Japan currently enforces a daily entry cap of 50,000 people, which was recently increased from 20,000. This isn’t a dedicated cap for tourists; it includes all types of travellers, even Japanese nationals. In any case, it’s safe to say that tourists aren’t putting much pressure on this cap, given the onerous requirements imposed on their visits. 

Another major barrier to travel is the mandatory visa requirement for tourists. Before the arrangement was suspended due to COVID-19, Japan allowed nationals from the following 68 countries and regions to visit for up to 90 days without the need for a visa. 

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to announce the removal of the arrival cap and restoration of visa-free travel in the coming days.

What’s not been explicitly stated is whether independent travel will be permitted, but the smart money points to yes. After all, the whole purpose of requiring a visa was so that travellers’ profiles and itineraries could be vetted. This task was outsourced to an approved tour agency, who would issue the ERFS required for a visa application. 

But if visas are no longer necessary, it seems that it would be a lot harder logistically to enforce the tour package rule. Stranger things have happened, I suppose, but I’d be very surprised if independent travel did not resume at the same time as the lifting of visa requirements. 

What are travel requirements expected to look like?

Japan has scrapped the requirement for a pre-departure COVID-19 test for all vaccinated travellers. As a reminder, Japan defines “fully vaccinated” as individuals who have received at least three jabs of the following vaccines:

• AstraZeneca
• Bharat Biotech
• Janssen
• Moderna
• Novavax
• Pfizer-BioNTech

Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccinations are not recognised. Travellers who have received such vaccinations are still required to produce a negative pre-departure PCR test result, taken within 72 hours of travel.

On-arrival measures depend on an individual’s travel history. Singapore is currently classified as a Blue List country, which does not require on-arrival testing or quarantine, regardless of vaccination status.

Visitors from Yellow or Red List countries may be required to take on-arrival tests or quarantine, depending on their vaccination status.

Blue List

Yellow List

Red List

If your 14-day travel history cuts across various categories, the restrictions of the strictest one will apply. You can view the categorisation of countries here.

Conclusion

Japan looks set to scrap its daily arrival cap and visa requirement in the next few days, which would almost certainly mean that year-end travel is back on the cards. 

The airlines have been expecting this for a while now; Scoot plans to resume daily services to Sapporo from November, and Singapore Airlines is currently due to increase Haneda flights to 2x daily from November as well.

Fingers crossed!