Japanese business people welcome China's new visa-free policy which applies trial visa exemption to ordinary passport holders from Japan for business, tourism, family visits, exchanges and transit and allows them to stay for up to 30 days starting from Saturday to December 31, 2025.
Business travelers from Japan have found it much more convenient to visit China.
Koga Hayashi, a consultant at the Japan-China Investment Promotion Organization (JCIPO), travels to and from China once or twice a month on average.
"Sometimes enterprises in China may expect me to get over there right away. But as it takes time to get a visa, it's hard to make it. Now with the visa-free policy, I can rush to the site at any time just with an air ticket. I'm very grateful to this policy," said Hayashi.
Other business people engaging in bilateral trade also find the visa-free policy greatly in their favor.
"If our clients find it hard to travel to China, it will impact our business activities. So I and my colleagues from Japan and China are all happy about this new arrangement," said Kato Tomio, a businessman from JCIPO.
The new visa-free policy also inspires Japanese people's enthusiasm to visit China.
A travel agency in Tokyo said it received 1.5 times more inquires about China tours in the one week after the policy was announced.
"This year, our travel routes mainly depart from Tokyo. Then routes departing from regional cities like Osaka, Nagoya, Kyushu, Sendai and Hokkaido will also be greatly increased. We expect that the overall quantity of China travel products next year will be three to four times that of this year," said Mitsuhiro Keimatsu, head of the China travel sector in a large Japanese travel agency.
Driven by both business travel and tourism, major Japanese airlines have also started planning to increase flights and open new routes. Japan's All Nippon Airways said that since the visa-free policy was announced, demand for sightseeing tours, business travels and family visits from Japan to China have apparently grown, so they will give priority to increase the transport capacity of existing routes to meet the growing travel demands.
The unilateral visa-free entry trial was also newly applied to eight other countries, namely, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Malta, Estonia and Latvia. The total number of countries eligible for visa-free access to China has been brought to 38 and the period of stays allowed has been doubled from 15 days to 30 days, demonstrating China's growing openness and willingness to facilitate people-to-people exchanges.
Japanese welcome China's new visa-free policy
