Japan said on Thursday it will make a vaccine passport available from next month for Japanese travellers, as governments around the world experiment with ways to relaunch tourism and business trips.
“We are preparing to issue a certificate for vaccination for those who need one… when they visit foreign countries,” top government spokesman Katsunobu Kato told reports. The certificate will be paper-based rather than digital and will be issued by the local government sometime next month, he said.
The European Union is working on a digital vaccine passport for this summer so it can welcome back badly needed tourists, and some EU countries plan to introduce certificates at the international level. The EU version will feature information on whether a person has been vaccinated, or had the virus, tested negative, and recovered.
Last month, Washington said it was also considering special documentation for vaccinated Americans who want to travel abroad. But the idea is controversial in some places, with conservative US states like Florida and Texas rejecting the idea of vaccine travel documents as a violation of peoples’ basic rights.
In Japan, company officials have been keen for the vaccine document that would help reestablishment business travel. Japan’s vaccine rollout started comparatively slowly, but just over six per cent of the population is currently fully vaccinated. The country’s borders are closed to almost all foreign arrival, through the rules will be relaxed for the Olympic Games, which open in Tokyo on July 23.
