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Japan’s tight border restrictions are constantly changing, especially as the country has reopened to tourists from June. Entry rules were eased further from Wednesday June 1, including raising the entry cap and exempting some people from testing on arrival and quarantine rules – depending on the country or region they are coming from.
Note that currently, tourists are only allowed to enter Japan as part of officially organised package tours. There is no date for resuming general tourism just yet.
To be exempt from arrival testing and quarantine procedures, countries and regions will be divided into three groups depending on their current Covid-19 situation: blue, yellow or red.
Under the new grouping system, travellers from areas with the lowest infection rate will be designated as blue and will be exempt from arrival testing and quarantine – regardless of vaccination status. Areas designated as yellow will be exempt from arrival testing and quarantine if they have a vaccination certificate. However, on-arrival testing and quarantine still applies to those who cannot provide a valid vaccination certificate. Countries and regions designated as red will still be required to do an arrival PCR test and self-isolate.
It’s also worth noting that travellers from all three groups must still present a negative PCR test taken up to 72 hours prior to their departure for Japan.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan has shared the full list of countries and regions by category. Here is the breakdown:
Red group
- Albania
- Sierra Leone
Yellow group
- Andorra
- Angola
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belarus
- Belize
- Bhutan
- Botswana
- Brunei
- Burkina Faso
- Cabo Verde
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Comoros
- Cook Island
- Cuba
- Cyprus
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Dominica
- Egypt
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Eswatini
- Federated States of Micronesia
- Fiji (from July 27)
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Georgia
- Grenada
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Honduras
- India
- Kazakhstan
- Kiribati
- Kosovo
- Kuwait
- Lebanon
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Liechtenstein
- Macau
- Maldives
- Mali
- Malta
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Namibia
- Nauru
- Nicaragua
- Niger
- Niue
- North Korea
- North Macedonia
- Oman
- Palestine
- Pakistan (from July 27)
- Portugal
- Republic of Burundi
- Republic of Congo
- Republic of the Marshall Islands
- Republic of Vanuatu
- Saint Christopher and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Samoa
- San Marino
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Saudi Arabia
- Senegal
- Seychelles
- Solomon Islands
- Somalia
- Sri Lanka
- Sudan
- Suriname
- Syria
- Tajikistan
- Togo
- Tonga
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- Tuvalu
- Ukraine
- Uruguay
- Uzbekistan
- Vatican
- Venezuela
- Vietnam
- Yemen
- Zimbabwe
Blue group
- Afghanistan
- Algeria
- Argentine
- Armenia
- Australia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- Belgium
- Benin
- Bolivia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Canada
- Chile
- China
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Cote d'ivoire
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Djibouti
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- Estonia
- Ethiopia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Ghana
- Greece
- Guatemala
- Hong Kong
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Jordan
- Kenya
- Kyrgyz
- Laos
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Malaysia
- Mexico
- Moldova (from July 27)
- Monaco
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Myanmar
- Nepal (from July 27)
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Nigeria
- Norway
- Palau
- Panama
- Papua New Guinea
- Paraguay
- Peru (from July 27)
- Philippines
- Poland
- Qatar
- Republic of Korea
- Romania
- Russia
- Rwanda
- Serbia
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Africa
- South Sudan
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- Timor-Leste
- Uganda
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- United States of America
- Western Sahara (from July 27)
- Zambia
For more information, see our breakdown of Japan's current border rules.
This article was originally published on May 27, and updated on July 25.
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