Japan's hotels and other accommodation facilities are seeing rapidly rising numbers of guests from abroad.

The number of overnight stays by such visitors was up 7-fold in October from the same month a year earlier.

The Japanese government has decided to suspend new entries of all non-resident foreign nationals following the detection of variants of the coronavirus outside the country.

The government will implement the measure between December 28 and January 31.

NHK has learned that Japan's government is planning to arrange buses to shuttle people arriving from overseas from the international airports in Haneda and Narita to some hotels in Tokyo.

The Japanese government is asking people who arrive from overseas to avoid using public transportation and arrange their own vehicles to leave the airport, even if they test negative for the coronavirus.

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.

Analysis of a large amount of data indicates that the number of travelers from Tokyo to other prefectures over the weekend rose 7 percent nationwide from the figure for a week earlier.

This was the first weekend since trips to and from Tokyo were added to the government's "Go To" campaign to encourage tourism.

Saturday is the beginning of the Bon summer holidays in Japan, but train and planes are less crowded than usual because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Most people waiting for bullet trains at Tokyo station on Saturday morning were traveling solo or in pairs. There weren't many families to be seen. They were wearing face masks and kept social distances. Station staff were giving out sanitizing wipes.

People are returning to airports and train stations in Japan, as the government lifted its restrictions on cross-prefectural travel on Friday.

At Tokyo's Haneda airport, many businesspeople and families were seen at a domestic terminal.

Traffic was thin at major transportation hubs and highways throughout Japan at the start of the country's week-long spring holiday on Wednesday. This comes amid a government request for people to refrain from traveling due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Japan Railway group companies say less than 10 percent of non-reserved seats on Shinkansen bullet trains were occupied.

Few people were seen at major transportation hubs in Tokyo and highways were quiet throughout Japan at the start of the country's week-long spring holiday on Wednesday.

Japan Railway group companies say less than 10 percent of non-reserved seats on all Shinkansen bullet train lines were occupied on Wednesday morning.

Japan plans to ask all people arriving in the country from the United States to self-quarantine for two weeks, starting on Thursday.

People with fevers or other symptoms arriving by sea and air are to be tested for the new coronavirus at quarantine stations.

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.

Narita Airport east of Tokyo is crowded with tourists from China as the Lunar New Year holiday period gets underway.

Direct flights arrived from China one after another on Friday except from Wuhan, where outbound flights were grounded due to the spread of a new coronavirus almost across China.