Japan is set to drop restrictions on individual tourism from October 11

Last week, reports from Fuji TV and Nikkei Asia suggested that an announcement on unrestricted individual tourism would be just around the corner. Japan’s Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, has today put an end to speculation, confirming that his government will relax border measures from next month. He made the comments from New York, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly.

“The government is currently in the process of removing the cap on the number of visitors, allowing individual travel, and waiving visa requirements for short-term stays,” he said.

An official announcement is yet to come, however the PM’s words will come as a huge relief to tourism operators who have endured many months of uncertainty.

Japan is the last of the G7 nations to have kept tourist restrictions in place. With pent-up demand for travel and the value of the yen at its weakest in decades, experts are predicting a rapid recovery of the tourism sector, and perhaps even “the mother of all tourism booms“.

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