Japan will suspend the entry of business people from 11 countries and territories, including Viet Nam, into the country as part of its efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kyodo News reported on 13 January.

An airport in Tokyo, Japan (Photo: japanvisitor.com)

This means Japan will not grant entry permits to all nonresident foreign nationals.

The Japanese government last month halted new entries from most of the world, but business travelers from 11 countries and territories, which signed bilateral agreements with the Asian nation, namely Brunei, Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan (China), and Viet Nam, had been exempted.

During a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide and several other senior government officials on 12 January, the governors of Tokyo and three neighbouring provinces of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa asked for more measures, including tightening control at border gates, to contain the spread of COVID-19 and prevent new variants of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 from entering Japan.

They also asked the government to give priority to assisting community health centres in allocating resources for COVID-19 prevention. Currently, the burden on these centres is increasing as the pandemic is spreading rapidly and some centres have decided to suspend the tracking of many SARS-CoV-2 cases.

Japanese officials said the government will provide financial support for companies that apply the tele-working model.

Source: VNA