Japan Retracts Ban on All New Incoming Flights After Criticisms

Japan Retracts Ban on All New Incoming Flights After Criticisms
Travelers walking past check-in counters at an international flight departure floor at Tokyo's Haneda airport, on Dec. 1, 2021. Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images
|Updated:

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida admitted on Thursday that the decision to stop taking reservations for inbound international flights caused public confusion and requested the transport ministry to consider people’s wishes to travel home.

The transport ministry had on Wednesday issued a request to international airlines to stop taking new reservations for flights coming into Japan until the end of December as an emergency precaution to defend against the new omicron variant of the coronavirus.