- Japan plans to shorten the time needed for entry procedures on arrival at its airports for foreign travelers.
- New measures will be applied first to Taiwan visitors starting next January.
- As Japan faced overtourism, bad behaviour from foreign tourists, and an exceeding number of visitors, the country’s authorities aimed to introduce special fees and prices.
The Japanese government plans to introduce a new preclearance system next January, starting with tourists from Taiwan.
The initiative aims to reduce the time required for entry procedures upon airport arrival, VisaGuide.World reports.
Visitors will undergo most entry controls at the departure airports via the pre-clearance system. Meanwhile, those who have completed the process must only undergo simple arrival procedures at Japanese airports.
Japan to Introduce Special Fees & Prices for Foreign Visitors Due to Their Bad Behaviour
Considering that some Japanese tourist areas are struggling with over-tourism, the excessive number of tourists and their bad behaviour are raising concerns among visitors.
As a result, the country’s government is also planning to draft guidelines to address this issue by the end of this year. In this regard, the officials are expected to discuss whether they will allow entrance to the tourist sites and how to charge special fees and prices for foreign visitors.
Based on data from the Japanese government, the latter registered a record 17.78 million foreign visitors in the first half of this year.
The figure they recorded for the first six months of the year exceeded the previous high of 16.63 million set in 2019. In addition, the number of foreign visitors reached 3.14 million only in June 2024, a record for a single month and exceeding three million for the fourth consecutive month.
According to country and region, the most significant number of visitors during this month came from the following destinations:
- South Korea – 700,000
- China – 660,000
- Taiwan – 570,000
- United States – 300,000
- Hong Kong – 250,000
As the country’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida predicts, Japan could see a record 35 million foreign visitors this year, with their spending expected to rise to around 8 trillion yen ($50 billion).