Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday that travelers coming to Japan will be exempt from taking COVID-19 tests before departure if they have received three vaccine shots.
The eased COVID-19 restrictions on arrivals to Japan will begin on Sept. 7, the Japanese leader told a virtual press briefing.
Along with easing the virus testing requirements, Kishida said the government will soon decide on raising the daily cap of arrivals to Japan.
The current cap on daily arrivals has been set at 20,000, with the government mulling raising it to 50,000, informed sources have said.
The Japanese government has been steadily easing its strict border controls, which for a long time were the most rigid among the Group of Seven major developed nations.
In another COVID-19-related development, Japan will change the way it reports daily COVID-19 cases, informed sources said.
The daily reporting in some instances will only focus on the elderly and others who are at risk of developing severe symptoms after contracting the virus, with the aim being to help ease the administrative burden of hospitals and medical facilities having to report each case, they said.
The change in reporting rules is set to be explained by Kishida later in the day, a government official said, with the new rules not necessarily applicable in all prefectures and regions.
Currently, medical facilities by law must report all COVID-19 cases to the government.
Officials have questioned, however, whether the paperwork involved in logging cases of asymptomatic, or young patients with a low risk of developing severe symptoms is necessary, especially when facilities are overstretched from dealing with rising numbers of at-risk patients.
The move comes as the highly transmissible BA.5 Omicron subvariant of the virus continues to run rampant nationwide amid Japan's seventh wave of infections.
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