TOKYO -- Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Tuesday announced an extension of a ban on new foreign arrivals as the government tries to stop the spread of the highly transmissible omicron COVID-19 variant.
"We will maintain the framework [of restrictions] until the end of February," Kishida told reporters, after he had signaled the rules would be extended earlier this month. "We will take necessary responses in line with humanitarian and national interests."