Japan to introduce “vaccine passports” to make it easier for individuals who have been inoculated against COVID-19 to travel internationally,
The passports are expected to be within the form of a smartphone app, with travelers scanning QR codes at airports before boarding flights or when entering the nation.
The government is moving forward with the plan within the hope of resuming business travel that has virtually stopped during the pandemic, joining the European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China.
“Other nations are doing it, so Japan should consider it too,” Taro Kono, the minister in charge of the nation’s vaccination efforts, stated in a parliamentary session Wednesday.
Kono had previously voiced concern that requiring certification of vaccination could lead to discrimination against individuals unable or unwilling to receive shots due to potential allergic reactions or side effects.
To allay such worries, the passports will also list negative results from polymerase chain reaction and antigen tests, the sources stated. It is not expected that the scheme will be used domestically, for example, to regulate entry into restaurants or sports events.
The app will link with the Vaccination Record System, a government database of people who have received shots. It will likely be based on CommonPass, an app developed with the involvement of the World Economic Forum.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, and the Foreign Ministry will play a central role in working out the details of the plan, the sources stated.
Keidanren, the nation’s biggest business lobby, called on the government on Monday to consider introducing vaccine passports, pointing to the EU’s plans to launch its “Digital Green Pass” in June to allow overseas tourists to visit during the summer holidays.
Japan currently only allows entry to citizens and foreign residents as well as foreigners with “special exceptional circumstances,” and they must submit negative results for coronavirus tests taken within 72 hours prior to their departure.
Roughly 2.3 million individuals in Japan had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday, mostly health care staff. That’s less than 2% of the population, far lower than nations with much faster rollouts such as Israel, Britain, and the United States.
Fewer than 1 million individuals had received both of the required doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, currently the only one approved for use in Japan.
