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Japan has ended its blanket COVID-19 testing of visitors from mainland China as part of an easing of border controls due to travelers making the journey returning a low rate of positive results since late January.
The number of international flight passengers using two major airports in Japan during the New Year holidays surged roughly 17-fold from the same period two years earlier due to the relaxation of border controls, immigration authorities say.
The number of weekly COVID-19 cases in Japan has risen for the first time in about two months, with increases recorded in all 47 prefectures except Okinawa, according to health ministry data compiled
The estimated number of foreign visitors to Japan in September increased 11.7-fold from a year earlier to 206,500, government data show, with the figure likely to jump in the coming months after Japan removed almost all its COVID-19 entry restrictions earlier this month.
The Japanese government says it must strike a balance between opening up to foreign travelers while keeping the coronavirus pandemic in check, as it looks to revive the world's third-largest economy which has been hard hit by the absence of tourists.