Japan to Ease Border Controls on China from March

Tokyo, Feb. 27 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government said Monday that it will ease its COVID-19 border controls on visitors from mainland China at the beginning of March.

After midnight Tuesday (3 p.m. GMT), COVID-19 tests upon arrival in Japan will be conducted only on sampled passengers from mainland China, or up to around 20 pct of all passengers from there.

Meanwhile, passengers from mainland China will continue to be required to submit a negative result from a COVID-19 test conducted within 72 hours of departure.

The government will also lift measures to limit arrivals from mainland China to four airports--Tokyo's Haneda Airport, Narita International Airport near Tokyo, Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, and Chubu Centrair International Airport in the central prefecture of Aichi--and to ask airlines not to increase flights from China, while monitoring the quarantine situation.

At a press conference on Monday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said that the COVID-19 positive rate among travelers from China has been "relatively low" and that all coronavirus cases detected among them through border control measures have been cases of the omicron variant.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]