Source: Lonely Planet
Security & Justice
Captured Hezbollah Operative May Have Been Israeli Double Agent, Report Suggests
The alleged senior Hezbollah operative abducted by Israeli special forces last week in Batroun may have been operating as a double agent, according to a report by The Telegraph.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Lebanon’s Probe into Israeli Raid Expected to Take Days as Security Officials Weigh Theories
Lebanese authorities are ramping up investigations into an Israeli commando raid last week in the northern coastal city of Batroun, during which Imad Amhaz, a Hezbollah official, was snatched.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Opinion
The Emptying of Baalbek Is a Moment to Take Stock
“Large numbers of people continue to flee their homes every day, as Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have been going on unabated.” These disturbing words could be from almost any news report about Israel’s invasion of its northern neighbour over the past month. However, they can be found in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre issued on July 27, 2006.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
A Future Without Hezbollah
At the end of September, when Israel’s campaign to destroy Hezbollah was reaching its height, I met one of the group’s supporters in a seaside café in western Beirut. He was a middle-aged man with a thin white beard and the spent look of someone who had not slept for days. He was an academic of sorts, not a fighter, but his ties to Hezbollah were deep and long-standing.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Sports
Tottenham Forward Son Heung-min Crowned Asia’s International Player of the Year
Tottenham forward Son Heung-min was crowned as Asia’s International Player of the Year for the fourth time by the Asian Football Confederation at its annual awards ceremony Tuesday.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Real Madrid Launch Investigation into Racist Insults After El Clasico Defeat
Real Madrid has launched an investigation into racist insults directed at players during Saturday’s 4-0 home loss to Barcelona in LaLiga, it said on Sunday.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Monday 17 January 2022 14:28:02
Japan Extends Travel Ban through February - But When Can International Tourists Visit?
Japan has extended its travel ban on overseas arrivals until at least the end of February, but will international tourists be permitted to visit once the ban is lifted?
Japan once again sealed its borders in November, banning the entry of all foreign visitors into the country in response to the emergence of the Omicron strain of COVID-19.
Prior to the current ban, business travelers, international students, foreign residents, and Japanese nationals living overseas were permitted to travel to Japan when it lifted its blanket travel ban on November 8, as well as athletes and approved visitors during the 2021 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
But for the duration of the pandemic the rest of the world has been effectively shut out under one of the toughest COVID-19 border policies in the world.
Japan recorded its first case of Omicron on November 30 and since then infection rates have steadily increased. The government's plan to extend the travel ban until the end of February (allowing only foreigners with resident status to return and exceptional cases) is intended to give it time to overcome the peak of Japan's sixth wave.
"We'll maintain the current framework of measures until the end of February... while taking necessary measures from the perspective of humanitarian and national interests," Japan's prime minister Fumio Kishida told Reuters.
When can tourists travel to Japan?
Once the ban is lifted at the end of February, it's unclear who will be permitted to travel to Japan. Presumably Japan will allow business travelers and international students to return again and resume the phased reopening plan that had started in early November, but that hasn't been confirmed.
As for international tourists the situation is even less clear. "Unfortunately, we don't have any more information than the extension of the travel ban through February," a spokesperson for the tourism board told Lonely Planet.
While a statement on US Embassy in Japan's website reads: "travel for tourism and most other short-term purposes is still not permitted, and there is no indication that this will change in the short term. Visa-free travel is suspended."
Despite the travel bans, government is sticking to its 2030 tourism goals—so it's possible we'll see a gradual return to tourism later this year.