NAGOYA (Kyodo) Tourism minister Seiji Maehara said Sunday the government will consider granting tourist visas to more individual travelers from China by easing requirements that have been viewed as a barrier to people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.

Maehara said during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Shao Qiwei, that he wants to “ease visa requirements further,” mirroring Japan’s interest in boosting the number of Chinese visitors. The number of Chinese tourists to Japan surpassed 1 million for the first time last year.

Japan first granted tourist visas to Chinese nationals for group trips in 2000, expanded the measure to cover trips by wealthy Chinese families in 2008 and then extended visas to individual Chinese travelers last July.

In an attempt to prevent illegal overstays, however, issuing a tourist visa to individual Chinese travelers is currently limited to people with an annual income at least 250,000 Chinese yuan, or about ¥3.5 million.

Only travel agencies designated by the Japanese government are allowed to file for visas for Chinese. The agencies are required to confirm that the travelers have returned to China and report this to the Japanese authorities.

Shao notified Maehara of a trial plan to allow Chinese nationals to go on sightseeing trips to Japan through local bureaus of Japanese travel agencies.

He said China will soon begin selecting the Japanese companies based on their credibility, track records and management capabilities.

“I think Japanese travel agencies can provide fine-tuned services and hospitality and it will help to increase the number of tourists to Japan dramatically,” Maehara said while welcoming the plan.

Maehara and Shao met ahead of a meeting in Nagoya of the tourism ministers of Japan, China and South Korea.