Japan to Close Border to Foreigners Having Traveled to India, Pakistan, Nepal

Tokyo, May 12 (Jiji Press)--The government said Wednesday it will in principle ban foreign nationals who have recently been to India, Pakistan or Nepal from entering Japan, even if they have residency status. Japanese nationals will still be allowed to return from the three South Asian countries, where coronavirus cases are spiking, it also said. The measures will take effect Thursday midnight (3 p.m. GMT) and will be in place "for a while." To be banned from entry are foreign nationals who have visited at least one of the three countries during the past two weeks. Re-entry by foreigners with residency status, such as permanent residents, those who have Japanese spouses, spouses of permanent residents and fixed settlers, will also be rejected unless public interest or human rights issues are involved. In March, 17,376 foreigners with residency status re-entered Japan. Of them, 2,699 came from India, Pakistan and Nepal. On Monday, the government extended the mandatory quarantine period for those who returned from the three counties to six days from three days, in a move to block entry of the highly transmissible Indian variant of the novel virus. But lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party demanded at a meeting earlier on Wednesday that the government further tighten border control. During the joint meeting of the party's foreign affairs division and foreign affairs research commission, government representatives reported that about 4,000 Japanese citizens and foreign residents returned from the three countries in April and that 145 of them tested positive to the coronavirus at the time of re-entry. They also disclosed that as of early May the authorities had each day lost contact with some 100 people required for the three-day quarantine. Masahisa Sato, chief of the LDP division, underscored the importance of banning foreign residents' re-entry. END