Japan to ease visa rules ahead of 2020 Olympics

And for what reason do these countries get a pass and the bigger question, is it a good idea?

And for what reason do these countries get a pass and the bigger question, is it a good idea?

Probably because their citizens are not as poor or as likely to breach the conditions of their visa as they were when the rules were first drawn up a few decades ago? Singapore used to be one of the poorest countries in Asia but times do change.

Hope China and South Korea will be attending 2020 Olympics.

Good point. Vietnam is still a poor country. And Indonesia a very populated one. Taking limited risk is very new for Japan. I praise it.

Bassfunk, it's because many other neighboring (Taiwan, China...) have already similar visa exemptions and ultimately, they'll do it for all. So far, no problem with these tourists. Eligible people are their country's upper middle class, they're not terrorists and they're not interested in illegally slaving in Japan's underworld, if that's what you fear. And anyway, such people get shipped in by gangs regardless of the laws.

Australians have had this luxury for years (though strangely, Japanese need an ETAS to enter Australia...), so it's good to see more countries being added into the mix!

imitating England "London Olympics"

“The objectives of these measures are to promote Japan as a tourism-oriented country with the… goal of attracting 20 million foreign visitors” annually, the ministry said in a statement.

"The objectives of these measures are to gain as much money as humanly possible since the risk for massive Olympic-related debt is high, and then re-instating the current, stricter visa requirements immediately after the Olympics have concluded," the ministry wanted to say in a statement.

M3M3M3, you've got the pulse of the matter

I hope Japan has a new government that is not so fascist by then. The Olympics should not be tainted by politics.

For to boost low paid manual labors?

Seems like that Japanese government wanna boost, but have no idea how to boost tourism and reach 20 mln. So now they're risk with illegal imigration - even South Korea(really risky country in visa easing) doesn't waived wisa regime with those countries.

It seems like Japanese government doesn't know or ignore ex-USSR countries(cause of territorial diputes?). South Korea, for example, waived visa with Russia and seems like wanna waive visa with Kazakhstan - totally it's about 165 people with low risk of illegal imigration(even in this 2 countries about 250000 ethnical koreans). But despite of it Japan has most strict visa policy to ex-USSR countries(wiki's article - Japan visa policy) . If Japanese government wanna use visa waive in territorial dispute talks - they're stupid. They need to separate the issues and accept that prospect of visa waiving will not be an incentive for Russia in territorial talks. Territorial disputes with Korea doesn't prevent bilateral visits. Last year about 200000 Russians visited South Korea and only 60000 - Japan. This year after bilateral visa waiving there are more than 30% boost of russian tourists in Korea. And Russia is №4 in International tourism expenditures after Germany and ahead of the UK. So Japan just ignoring Russian piece of pie in World Tourism.

This is one of good economical strategies of Japanese government, but also chances for foreignors to know how we Japanese live, think and treat others. As some mentioned China and Korea in comments, we are also welcome from these coutries to better understand what real Japanese think about them. I am Japanese national but currently living in the Philippines and it seems for some people here that Japan is one of dream destinations to go in terms of working, culture(especially anime and cartoons) and nature(especially sakura). People are excited here and I am proud of that.

This change is not just for Olympic year but for later years, too.