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Sum Lok-kei

Chris Lau

Japan will impose a 14-day quarantine period on all travellers from China and suspend visa-free arrangements for Hongkongers as the country tightens immigration controls amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Hong Kong travel agencies cancelled at least 75 tours to the country, affecting about 1,800 people.
As of Thursday, Japan had more than 1,000 cases of the virus and recorded 12 deaths. Some 700 confirmed cases arose from cruise liner Diamond Princess, which was quarantined off the coast of Yokohama last month.
The quarantine policy also applies to travellers from South Korea, the second worst affected country with more than 6,000 infections and 40 deaths.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a meeting of a government task force on the disease that visitors from both countries would be placed under quarantine to prevent the coronavirus from spreading further in Japan, according to AFP.

“We will ask [travellers] to stay in designated areas for two weeks and not to use public transport,” Abe said.
Japan’s justice minister Masako Mori wrote on Twitter that a visa exemption for Hong Kong and Macau travellers would also be suspended.
The measures are set to kick in on Monday.
A spokesman for the Japanese consulate in Hong Kong said after the suspension came into force, Japan would also not be issuing new visas to Hongkongers.
“They will have no way to enter Japan,” he said.
But cases involving humanitarian concerns would be considered separately, the spokesman said.
Under the exemption, Hong Kong and Macau passports holders were able to stay in Japan for up to 90 days without a visa. Travellers from mainland China, however, were required to apply for a visa before their visit.
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Abe also requested that flights from China and South Korea use only two major airports – Narita airport, east of Tokyo, and Kansai in Osaka prefecture, Kyodo news agency reported.
Hong Tai Travel Services immediately cancelled its tours and said 15 groups, involving about 300 travellers, would be affected, adding that people could seek a refund or change their bookings to other destinations.
“We know customers are concerned that they will not be able to depart as scheduled, so we will cancel all tours to Japan from March 6 to 31,” it said.
Another Hong Kong travel agency, EGL Tours, said it would cancel 60 tours to Japan from Monday until the end of March, affecting about 1,500 customers.


Tourism sector lawmaker Yiu Si-wing said travel agencies had already been hit hard since the start of the outbreak, with outbound tour booking slashed to just a few per cent of previous levels.
“Those specialising in Japanese tours will feel even more pressure,” Yiu said.
He believed travel agencies would survive the financial setbacks but may ask employees to take unpaid leave to cut costs.
A 35-year-old clerk, surnamed Chan, had planned to visit Tokyo next Thursday.
Chan said she had been told she could get a refund for the flight tickets and had yet to book accommodation.
“The spread of the virus is so quick that I expected not to be able to go,” she said.


The announcement came shortly after Japan’s Olympics minister Seiko Hashimoto hinted that the Tokyo Games would go ahead as planned in July, even as the other nations were scrambling to contain the spread of the virus.
Hong Kong accounts for the fourth biggest group of foreign visitors to the country, according to the Japan National Tourism Organisation. About two million people from Hong Kong visited the country in 2019, about the same as in the previous three years.
Although the epidemic has resulted in the cancellation of many flights, 23 were still operating between Hong Kong and Japan. Mainland China took over from South Korea in 2015 as Japan’s main source of visitors. Last year, more than 8.8 million mainlanders visited.
Meanwhile, Thailand has declared Hong Kong alongside mainland China, South Korea, Italy and Iran as “dangerous areas” with the virus but has not imposed travel restrictions yet.


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Coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus: Japan to quarantine visitors from China and suspend visa-free arrangements for Hongkongers

Japan has had more than 1,000 cases of the new coronavirus. Photo: Bloomberg

epa08269066 (FILE) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during a televised news conference at prime minister's official residence in Tokyo, Japan, 29 February 2020 (reissued 04 March 2020). Abe met opposition parties' leaders separately on 04 March 2020 to ask help to enact an emergency law against COVID-19 coronavirus. EPA-EFE/KIMIMASA MAYAMA

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Medical workers wearing protective gear take samples from a driver with suspected coronavirus symptoms at a ‘drive-through’ test facility in South Korea. Photo: AFP

Army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 4, 2020. The coronavirus epidemic shifted increasingly westward toward the Middle East, Europe and the United States on Tuesday, with governments taking emergency steps to ease shortages of masks and other supplies for front-line doctors and nurses. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

South Korean army trucks spray disinfectant as a precaution against the coronavirus on a street in Ulsan, South Korea, Tuesday, March 3, 2020. China's coronavirus caseload continued to wane Tuesday even as the epidemic took a firmer hold beyond Asia. (Kim Young-tae/Yonhap via AP)

A woman wearing a face mask crosses an intersection in northern Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 4, 2020. With deaths spiking in Iran and Italy and infections spreading quickly through Europe, the Mideast and the Americas, countries were considering new drastic measures to curb the new coronavirus that first emerged in China. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A man wearing a face mask has his temperature measured in a mall in the financial district of Lujiazui in Shanghai on March 4, 2020. - China on March 4 reported 38 more deaths from the new coronavirus but a fall in fresh cases for a third consecutive day. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP)

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Hong Kong

Health & Environment


Hong Kong travel agencies cancel at least 75 tours to the country, affecting about 1,800 people
14-day quarantine policy also applies to travellers from South Korea



Hong Kong travel agencies cancelled at least 75 tours to the country, affecting about 1,800 people.


Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

Coronavirus: Japan to quarantine visitors from China and suspend visa-free arrangements for Hongkongers

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Hong Kong travel agencies cancel at least 75 tours to the country, affecting about 1,800 people 14-day quarantine policy also applies to travellers from South Korea

Hong Kong travel agencies cancel at least 75 tours to the country, affecting about 1,800 people

14-day quarantine policy also applies to travellers from South Korea