Japan opens to tourists after two years - with guided tours

Foreign tourists can once again plan their trip to Japan after two years of closure.

The entry permit is now lifted for 98 selected regions that are judged to have a low risk of infection, including the USA, Great Britain, China, South Korea and Singapore.

Travelers will be divided into three categories, red, yellow and green, depending on which country you are traveling from.

The categories determine whether you have to be quarantined upon entry or not.

Raises the ceiling for entry

On June 1, Japan doubled the previous ceiling for the number of people entering the country from 10,000 to 20,000 people per day.

Responsible authorities say that the new guided tours will include the previously current entry ceiling and that it will most likely take some time before foreign tourists can visit the country under individual more free conditions. 

Japan has been largely closed to entry since 2020. In 2019, it received close to 32 million foreign tourists, a figure that was reduced to 250,000 in 2021. The sharp decline during the pandemic has almost completely knocked out the country's domestic market for tourism.

Something the country's representatives hope the reopening will help remedy.