Japan lifts Kovid-19 ban on business travelers, foreign workers

Japan said it would allow short-term business travelers and foreign laborers to enter the country, responding to calls from companies that feared falling behind the West.

The decision came after a sharp drop in new infections in Japan, which is reporting only a few hundred new Covid-19 cases a day. More than 70% of the population has been fully vaccinated.

The loosening keeps Japan closer to regulations in the US and Europe, while sharpening the contrast with China, which hinges on a zero-Covid policy and severely restricted entry by foreigners.

Since last year, Tokyo has barred most businessmen from making regular travel to the country and denied entry to thousands of students and foreign workers who were otherwise eligible for residency in Japan. The government said those restrictions would be lifted on Monday.

Some limits remain. Japan will still restrict the total number of international arrivals to a day. Short-term visitors must have a host organization such as a company or school that takes responsibility for managing their stay and submits an activity plan to the authorities. They must be vaccinated with an approved vaccine — those sold by Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc — and isolate themselves for three days, after which they are required to test negative.

Students and workers face a long isolation period of two weeks. And restrictions on tourists continue, hitting hotels, tourist shops and other businesses.

The government held off on changing its rules until national elections on 31 October, which returned the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party to power with a solid parliamentary majority.

The country’s biggest business lobby, known as Keidanren, has been advocating since September that vaccinated people be allowed to enter the country without quarantine to bolster the economy. Japanese people currently have to undergo 10 to 14 days of quarantine upon return from abroad.

Kengo Sakurada, head of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives and chief executive officer of insurer Sompo Holdings Inc., said various regulations made it difficult for his company to hold in-person meetings with foreign partners.

“I expect the quarantine period to be zero soon,” he said.

The US is set to lift travel restrictions for fully vaccinated international visitors, whether for business or leisure, starting Monday. These visitors must still test negative before departure, but are not required to quarantine after entering the US

Other countries such as Australia and Thailand have recently eased restrictions.

Before the pandemic, Japan was increasingly dependent on foreign workers, including internship programs lasting several years.

A non-profit called Katsumi-kai operates a dozen homes for the elderly in an area near Tokyo and expected three caregivers from Indonesia to start working as apprentices in April. But border closures have kept them from coming so far, said Shigeki Ito, a group executive.

“I’m really really grateful. It’s finally come,” said Mr. Ito.

He said existing employees have to work overtime and the operator has to fill in the gap with more expensive temporary workers sent from job-placement firms.

In an agricultural area in Gunma, north of Tokyo, farmers have been forced to idle their fields because of a labor shortage, an official from a local agricultural cooperative said. Before the coronavirus, the sector employed 200 to 300 foreign workers on internship programs from countries such as China and Vietnam.

The opening of the border to international students should come as a relief to Japanese-language schools as well. In a July poll, the majority said they would be out of business within a year if the entry ban remained in place.

However, the president of the Japan Medical Association, Toshio Nakagawa, said he feared that by easing restrictions, the country may have almost wiped out the Covid-19 virus, perhaps by introducing new variants.

Dr Nakagawa said, “I am surprised that the virus we are controlling in Japan and the virus that is spreading abroad once again is the same thing.” “We need to be careful about border controls.”