TOKYO - Japan's business community issued a joint statement on Friday seeking further relaxation of border controls, as the country begins a gradual easing of Covid-19 travel restrictions.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's decision to raise the cap on international arrivals will bring an additional 6,000 foreign tourists per day, Bloomberg Economics estimates. That is likely to generate annual spending of about 320 billion yen , or just 14 per cent of the levels recorded in 2019. "Given that the yen is quite clearly weaker than it was pre-pandemic, everything in Japan is a lot cheaper for people coming from abroad," said Ms Mari Iwashita, chief market economist at Daiwa Securities Co."I'd imagine they'd do quite a bit of shopping."Consumption in Japan has been tepid to date this year, with the Omicron outbreak weighing on household spending in the first three months.