Social activities reopen in Japan (Photo: Bui Hung, VOV correspondent in Japan)

Applicants for entry with business, trade, and diplomatic purposes will be given priority. Then the country will be periodically opened to students and tourists. Japan’s Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu has talked on the phone on the issue with his Vietnamese, New Zealand, and Australian counterparts and will soon hold telephone talk with Thailand.

Japanese officials explained that these four countries are viewed as successfully containing the COVID-19 pandemic and that many Japanese companies there have wished to resume investment and  trade activities.