河口湖, Mount Fuji, Lake Kawaguchiko
Photo: Platongkoh/DreamstimeMt Fuji as seen from Lake Kawaguchiko

Confirmed: Japan to accept foreign tourists on group tours from June 10

Package tour groups will pave the way for a full resumption of tourism

Kaila Imada
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Kaila Imada
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Despite many setbacks, Japan has started to slowly resume travel and tourism. This month, a limited number of foreign tourists were allowed to enter on a trial basis and more border restrictions are set to ease further from June 1. 

As reported by The Yomiuri Shimbun, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced tonight (Thursday May 26) that Japan will now allow foreign tourists to enter the country via package tours from Friday June 10, ahead of a full resumption of inbound tourism. Additionally, international flights will be expanded to cover Sapporo's New Chitose Airport and Okinawa's Naha Airport. 

This comes after Japan officially began trial tours with foreign tourists earlier this week. The Japan Times states that visitors coming into Japan are required to be triple vaxxed (including a booster shot) and participate only in scheduled tours, which will consist of a limited number of people. 

Meanwhile, border restrictions set to ease from June 1 include raising the daily cap of new arrivals to 20,000, which is double the current number of 10,000 people per day. 

Japan has been slower than the other G7 nations to reopen to tourism. Earlier this month, tourism, hospitality and transport industry officials called on the transport ministry to reopen the border to tourists.

Surprisingly, even though the country has been closed off to travellers for much of the last two years, Japan is currently considered the top tourist destination in the world.

This article was published at 5.22pm May 26 and updated at 7.45pm.

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