Japan will reduce the number of days of mandatory Covid-19 quarantine to three as of March 1 and increase the daily number of people allowed to arrive in the country, announced Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
"Now that we have more knowledge about the omicron variant, we will gradually ease border restrictions to increase international arrivals," said the Japanese chief executive at a press conference where he spoke about the epidemic situation in the country and its immigration policy.
Japan currently requires 7-day quarantine for people coming from more than 80 countries, with a mandatory stay in government-designated facilities of between 3 and 6 days, depending on the spread of the virus in the territory of origin, the rest of the time should be expended in private accommodations.
As of March 1, the quarantine period will be reduced to 3 days and those who meet certain requirements such as coming from a country that is not registering many cases; having received the booster dose of the Covid vaccine, and testing negative upon landing, may be exempted.
Japan has so far approved only Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines, so the number of doses received should be three for the exemption.
In addition to the quarantine reduction, the country will increase the number of daily visitors into the territory from 3,500 people to 5,000, focusing on increasing the entry of foreigners, which is currently very limited.