Japan govt advisor to propose letting in tourists

Vietnamese women living in Japan pose for a photo with cherry blossoms in Tokyo. - AP

TOKYO (Bloomberg): A Japanese government advisor plans to call for reopening the country to tourists amid a recent decline in new Covid infections, the Yomiuri newspaper said, amid calls to ease strict border controls put in place in early 2020.

An unnamed, private-sector member of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, which advises Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, is expected to submit the proposal in a meeting Wednesday (April 27), the Yomiuri reported without saying how it obtained the information. It was not immediately clear whether the member had the support of the council’s other members.