Japan is considering easing the 14-day quarantine requirement for foreigners visiting Japan for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Officials from the Japanese government, the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Tokyo organizing committee met at the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday.
The Japanese government is considering exemptions of the 14-day quarantine requirement for Japanese business travelers and foreign nationals with residence status returning from overseas trips.
Officials are planning to make a decision as early as this month in a step to relax the entry restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Japanese government is considering exempting a mandatory two-week quarantine for athletes who will arrive in Japan for next year's Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
The government has drafted a plan to ease regulations involving the coronavirus pandemic for the Tokyo Games that have been postponed until next year.
The number of coronavirus cases has been rising sharply at airport quarantine among people arriving in Japan even though the epidemic is subsiding in many parts of the country.
The health ministry says 131 people were confirmed to have the coronavirus at airport quarantine stations from May 25, when a state of emergency was completely lifted in Japan, to Wednesday.
One of Japan's largest travel agencies has begun helping companies and local governments find accommodation for people who need to self-isolate because of the coronavirus.
JTB says it has launched the service because some companies are having difficulty finding places for their employees to self-quarantine after returning from overseas assignments.
The Japanese government is considering asking all international travelers to self-quarantine for two weeks.
Authorities are set to finalize additional quarantine measures at a meeting of its coronavirus taskforce on Wednesday.
The Japanese government has decided that arriving travelers from most European countries, Iran and Egypt will be asked to self-quarantine for two weeks, starting on Saturday.
The decision was made at a cabinet meeting on Thursday to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
A Japanese government panel has proposed fresh quarantine measures for foreign visitors and returning Japanese travelers to control the coronavirus outbreak.
The head of the panel, Takaji Wakita, told reporters on Tuesday that the group had submitted the request to the health ministry.
People trying to get to Japan from China and South Korea are rushing to complete the trip before the government starts quarantining all arrivals from the two countries.
The Japanese government said earlier this week that from Monday it will require everyone coming from the two neighboring countries to be isolated at designated facilities for two weeks, as part of measures to stem the spread of the new coronavirus.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says the Japanese government will try to make its case to South Korea for Japan's request of a two-week quarantine period for those coming to Japan from South Korea and China.
Suga spoke to reporters on Friday. Seoul lodged a protest against Japan's move.
Japanese health experts say many passengers onboard a quarantined cruise ship were very likely to have been infected with the new coronavirus before authorities asked them to stay in their cabins.
Officials at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases held a news conference on Thursday. They discussed mass infections on the Diamond Princess, which arrived at Yokohama Port, near Tokyo, on February 3.
Japanese health experts say the new coronavirus continued to spread on the cruise ship Diamond Princess even after the passengers were told to stay in their cabins as a quarantine measure.
The National Institute of Infectious Diseases reported this on its English website on Wednesday.
An expert who examined quarantine measures on a cruise ship at Yokohama Port near Tokyo says keeping passengers and crew on board was appropriate for curbing domestic infections.
Professor Shigeru Sakurai of Iwate Medical University led an expert team from the Japanese Society for Infection Prevention and Control on a two-day inspection on the ship Diamond Princess last week.
Japanese people still quarantined after being repatriated on the first government-chartered plane from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan may soon be allowed to go home.
On January 29, the plane brought 206 people to Japan from the Chinese city.