Japan, closed since early 2020, plans to ease travel restrictions from June but the chances of much inbound or outbound medical tourism in Japan, at least for this year, appear slim.
Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, has said that Japan plans to ease travel restrictions starting in June, when the country will introduce a smoother entry process similar to that of other G7 members.
The G7 refers to a group of seven of the world’s advanced economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Aside from Japan, all the other G7 members have reopened to international travel with varying degrees of restrictions in place ranging from requiring a COVID vaccination and COVID testing to enter, to having dropped all COVID entry rules.
With the possible easing of entry restrictions, Japan is also considering increasing its daily entry limits. Currently, the daily entry quota is 10,000 foreign arrivals, but Japan is considering doubling that to 20,000 per day, still a fraction of the 87,000 tourists per day who entered Japan in 2019.
International travellers may need multiple Covid-19 tests and a packaged tour booking to enter.
But many residents do not want the borders to open yet, while others have moved to domestic travel and are not keen to rush overseas.
So the chances of much inbound or outbound medical tourism in Japan, at least for 2022, appear slim.
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