Fully vaccinated travelers to Japan to be eligible for shorter quarantine

The government has announced that it will from Friday shorten the quarantine period from 14 to 10 days for most people fully inoculated against COVID-19 and in some cases allow them to immediately self-isolate at home, even when returning from locations with a high presence of coronavirus variants. “As the vaccination rate increases, the government will revise entry restrictions in phases. This will be the first revision we will make,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said Monday. The planned change will apply to those who present proof that they have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and are able to observe the shorter quarantine period at home or an accommodation of their choosing. The relaxed rules will only apply to people who have received one of the three COVID-19 vaccines that are authorized by the Japanese government: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca. With the revision, Japan will begin to accept vaccine passports issued by about 50 countries and regions, along with those issued by Japanese municipalities. With the change, returnees will for the first time be able to use the vaccine passports that municipal governments have been issuing since late July.<br/>