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Japan's Doors Are Opening! (Slightly)

Jeremy Grigson • Sep 02, 2022

Living with COVID

COVID is still with us and many of us have had to learn how to ‘live with it’. It may be an understatement, but COVID has caused many problems throughout the globe and Japan is no exception. While the country managed to keep the numbers down initially, it has finally caught up with Japan that now holds records at an all-time high (over 200,000 a day) with no signs of them going down.

Japan is Slowly Opening its Borders

Japan firmly closed its doors to foreigners for two years with any attempt to reopen quickly shut down as cases were confirmed, leading to very strict entry requirements and procedures, a bane for doctors, HR departments and immigration. In the past few months, Japan has relaxed those rules and is now letting in the highest number of foreigners since the pandemic began with further relaxations coming – people coming from certain countries even now do not require a test to enter! But they still require a valid visa and as of now, travelers are still unable to enter the country without a specific reason to do so (e.g. family visiting foreign residents). Has the Japanese government given up on the idea of battling with the virus?

Get Help with Your Visa

The closed doors caused a backlog of certificate of eligibility applications and many relocation companies and their suppliers are struggling to keep up with the renewed demand. Japan Mobility has also seen a sharp increase in the number of COE applicants, but we are still capable of taking more on. As the Japanese government recently announced that they will increase the daily cap of entries from 20,000 to 50,000, we expect to see the number of applicants to increase further.

How Can Japan Mobility Help?

We accept requests from both corporations and individuals. If you are interested in using Japan Mobility for your COE application, feel free to get in touch about our Immigration Services.

We still look forward to the day where all travel restrictions will be lifted, but until then, we will have to continue to 'live with COVID' and do what needs to be done to help prevent the relentless spread of the coronavirus that has affected lives all across the planet.

Passenger waiting in the airport watching a plane takeoff

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