Tears and relief as Japan fully reopens to foreign travelers

Weak yen has tourism sector hopeful for a bonanza

20221011 Narita international airport1

People arrive at Narita International Airport in Chiba prefecture on Oct. 11. (Photo by Mayumi Tsumita)

RURIKA IMAHASHI, Nikkei staff writer

TOKYO -- An elderly woman sat impatiently in her wheelchair in the arrival lobby of Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Tuesday morning. When her elder sister came in from a flight from Seoul, they hugged for the first time in three years in a long tearful embrace.

The 76-year-old South Korean resident of Tokyo had been kept apart from her sibling by Japan's strict entry rules imposed at the onset of the pandemic. Their reunion will be just one example of a family reunited after Japan fully opened its borders on Tuesday.

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