Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced today at a media conference in London that Japan will ease its border controls in June by doubling the cap on overseas arrivals to 20,000 persons a day.

Reports in Japanese media suggest that to enter the country, international visitors may need to book a package tour and undergo multiple COVID-19 tests.

It's noteworthy that in a recent poll taken within Japan, 65% of respondents said they felt the existing travel restrictions should be kept in place or expanded. Japan has the largest proportion of elderly persons in its population of any country, and that demographic likely had major impact on those survey results.

Although Japan hosted nearly 32M international visitors in 2019, tourism contributes less than 5% of GDP to the country's economy, so reopening to tourists is not a big priority for the government.