China Halts Visas for Japanese Travelers in Retaliation Over New Covid Curbs

China has told travel agencies in Japan that it has stopped issuing new visas for travel, three companies confirmed to Reuters on Tuesday, an apparent response to stricter measures for Chinese arrivals after their country freed up travel.

Chinese authorities gave notice that they had stopped issuing all tourist and business visas to Japanese nationals, said an official of a Tokyo-based agency that focuses on Chinese travel, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A spokesperson of China’s embassy in Tokyo said it had no new information on visa policy, however, adding that any such updates would be posted on the embassy website.

The move came soon after Japan toughened Covid-19 rules for travellers coming directly from China, prescribing a negative result of a PCR test taken less than 72 hours before departure, as well as a negative test on arrival in Japan.

Earlier on Tuesday, China’s embassy in Seoul said it had stopped issuing short-term visas for visitors from South Korea.

(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya, Maki Shiraki, and Rocky Swift; Writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by clarence Fernandez)

This article was from Reuters and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive Content Marketplace. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.