Japan will also ban entry to foreign citizens with residence permits from countries considered to be the outbreaks of the new Omicron variant of Covid-19.
Government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said at a conference, explaining that the measure will remain valid "for some time" and is in addition to those already in force for foreigners who are not resident in Japan.
The ten nations whose citizens will not be allowed to enter the country are
Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe
. Earlier this week Tokyo had decided to close the borders to all passengers from abroad, including students and people traveling on business, to try to stem the expansion of Covid infections, due to the high risk of contagiousness of the new South African strain. Yesterday the first case of the new variant was found in Japan, involving a man in his thirties coming from Namibia on Sunday at Narita airport, and promptly isolated in a government facility.
"We have asked the airlines not to accept new bookings for one month starting from December 1" for flights to Japan, said a head of the Ministry of Transport, specifying that the measure does not concern already existing bookings.
