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EExplainerKAZUAKI NAGATASTAFF WRITER

Japan’s recent move to relax restrictions on new entries by foreign nationals is a wel-come development for those who have been anxious about when they can travel to the country.

Although Japan has basically imposed a ban on such arrivals since January, the government has now decided to open the border mainly to business travelers, inter-national students and technical interns.

But since the government began accept-ing necessary documents for entries Mon-day, it has emerged that the process is not that smooth, as companies and organiza-tions responsible for visitors have to jump through a lot of hoops.

But on an individual level, what should travelers be aware of? What should they prepare for?

Here is what you need to know:

Who can come to Japan?Business travelers staying for less than three months and long-term residents, such as international students and technical interns, can now come to the country.

They will not be allowed to travel unless they belong to a company, organization or school, which will be required to take responsibility for their trip.

The government is not accepting those arriving for sightseeing purposes yet. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno has said the government will consider accepting tourist groups after inspecting the practical-ity of monitoring their activities by year-end.

Also, those wishing to see their families and friends are unable to visit for that purpose unless it is an urgent humanitarian need.

Do individuals need to apply for entry by themselves?No, companies or organizations that are inviting visitors need to apply, but travel-ers will need to prepare some documents,

A primer on new entry conditions for nonresidents

Nippon Ishin and DPP target Constitution revision

China-U.S. climate deal seen as inadequateGLASGOW, SCOTLANDREUTERS

A joint China-U.S. declaration on climate change is a political reset to a time when the world’s two biggest carbon emitters reached the brief meeting of minds that helped forge the 2015 Paris Agreement.

But that still won’t be enough to avert a deepening climate crisis, unless Washing-ton and Beijing can match words with more action to curb fossil fuels and prod others at the COP26 talks in Glasgow to do the same.

“It prevents the worst from happening,” said Li Shuo, senior climate analyst with Greenpeace in Beijing, hinting at a scenario under which the United States and China might refuse to cooperate in the fight against climate change. “But does it give us the best? The answer is clearly no.”

For many, Wednesday’s announcement recalled Sino-U.S. cooperation in 2014, when officials under then-U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping helped lay the basis for the landmark accord in Paris a year later to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The subsequent move by climate change

skeptic and former U.S. President Donald Trump to pull the United States out of that accord shattered any vestige of trust between the two. President Joe Biden’s decision to rejoin Paris was only a first step in rebuild-ing that confidence.

Still, that didn’t stop the mud-slinging. During the first week of the Glasgow talks,

Xi called out rich countries for not doing enough, and Biden scolded the Chinese leader for not showing up in Scotland.

However, even as the barbs were fly-ing, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry — who served as Obama’s top diplomat — and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenua were finalizing a statement a Biden administra-tion official said had been nine months in the making.

“They knew they wanted to end with a joint statement that would find common ground around ‘ambition’ that could be a useful input for the Glasgow negotiations,” the official said.

While its final impact on the Glasgow talks is uncertain, the joint declaration at least managed to bolster hopes for a suc-cessful outcome of the U.N. meeting, which appeared to have made little progress in its first week.

“It’s mostly symbolic, for what both theChina’s chief climate negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, at the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scot-land, on Thursday REUTERS

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NOTICE: Due to a newspaper holiday on Nov. 14, there will be no issue of The Japan Times / The New York Times International Edition on Nov. 15. The press holiday is to provide time off for delivery personnel. The Japan Times, Ltd.

Currency networkDetained South Korean pair “part of North Korea cash operation” | NATIONAL, PAGE 2

Inside »Climate change risks ‘runaway humanitarian crisis’ PAGE 5

RYUSEI TAKAHASHISTAFF WRITER

The inclusion of free virus tests was largely overlooked in the sweeping coronavirus pol-icy package Prime Minister Fumio Kishida rolled out Friday morning.

And yet, after nearly two years of criticism that Japan isn’t testing enough people, it was

a subtle but strong sign of a shift in the coun-try’s attitude toward proactive countermea-sures and the long-term implications of the pandemic.

Kishida announced Friday that, while new cases are rising, individuals who can’t be vac-cinated for health reasons and who don’t have symptoms but are concerned they have been infected can receive a PCR or antigen test before taking part in certain economic or social activities.

The plan is part of a greater effort to pre-pare the country for a sixth wave of the pandemic — and whatever comes after-ward — by bolstering hospitals, procuring

more medical staff, expanding its vaccine campaign, administering booster shots and advancing the treatment of those with COVID-19.

“While new cases have declined substan-tially, it’s important to acknowledge the strong possibility that the virus will return and to prepare accordingly,” Kishida said Friday.

It’s not exactly clear who will be eligible and under what circumstances, but Kishida said Friday that the decision will be left to local governments, who have been directed to execute the plan at the latest by the end of March 2022.

Previously, PCR tests were free for people suffering common COVID-19 symptoms or individuals who had been in close contact with someone infected. In both cases, a doc-tor or public official had to give consent or provide a referral for the individual to get tested using taxpayer money.

Private companies have made PCR tests affordable and widely available to the pub-lic in major cities across Japan, but only more expensive, government-approved tests can be used for things such as travel abroad.

Since the early stages of the pandemic, Japan has been criticized both domestically and overseas by those who believe the coun-

try isn’t testing enough people and, there-fore, doesn’t have the means to ascertain the true extent of outbreaks.

While the number of tests conducted each day in Japan has increased substantially — from a few thousand in early 2020 to more than 150,000 in August this year — the coun-try still lags behind most other industrialized nations.

According to Our World In Data, Japan has been conducting 0.34 tests for every 1,000 individuals so far in November. In comparison, South Korea was carrying out 0.82 in late October, and this month the U.S.

In pandemic package, free testing signals attitude change

FFocusERIC JOHNSTONSTAFF WRITER

In what could be the start of an opposition party realignment, Nippon Ishin no Kai and the Democratic Party for the People have begun to jointly push for a parliamentary debate on revising the Constitution, which both they and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party favor.

On Tuesday, Nippon Ishin Secretary-General Nobuyuki Baba and DPP Secretary-General Kazuya Shimba agreed to accelerate the debate over constitutional revision by seeking discussions with other parties in an Upper House committee studying the issue.

“People are saying the Diet is not func-tioning and that Diet members are not doing their jobs. The first thing that needs to change are the Diet members themselves,”

Baba said Tuesday, explaining the reasons why the two parties have decided to coop-erate — albeit at this point only in areas they agree on.

“We’re breaking away from the tradi-tional framework of opposition parties,” said Shimba.

According to a Kyodo poll released Thurs-day, Nippon Ishin’s support rate is now 13%, the highest among the opposition parties. The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan has a 10.7% support rate, followed by the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) at 3.9% and the DPP at 2.7%. The poll also showed that 52.2% of respondents approved of movement toward a third force in the oppo-sition that is separate from the CDP.

In the short run, numbers as much as ide-ology appear to have brought the two par-ties together. Nippon Ishin has 41 seats in the Lower House, nine short of the 50 needed in order to submit bills in the Lower House

budget committee, while the DPP has 11 members. Cooperation, therefore, allows both parties to clear the 50-seat hurdle.

In the long run, in order to revise the Constitution, a two-thirds supermajority is needed in the Lower and Upper Houses, and the issue then needs to be put to a national referendum. Currently, the LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito hold 294 of the 465 Lower House seats. If Nippon

Ishin’s 41 seats and the 11 held by the DPP were added, there would be 346 seats held by parties that have indicated they are at least in favor of constitutional revision, well above the 310 needed for a supermajority.

The CDP and JCP, which oppose revising the Constitution, take a cautious stance on the committee debate due to fears that it will accelerate overall discussions on constitu-tional amendment.

While Baba acknowledged there are dif-ferences between the two parties on what kinds of constitutional revisions are needed, both agree a parliamentary debate on the issue of revision itself is necessary. Shimba said the DPP recognizes there are differences, but said that is not a reason to avoid debate in the Diet.

Two areas both parties mention in their

Party tie-up could herald new debate

Left: Ichiro Matsui, leader of Nippon Ishin no Kai. Right: Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People. REUTERS

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Japan has faced nearly two years of criticism over a lack of virus tests

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