China lifted its COVID-19 pandemic ban on group tours to Japan on Thursday as well as 77 other countries, a move that's likely to provide a significant boost to Japan’s tourism industry.

Thursday’s decision came after China imposed a blanket test for radiation on all seafood products imported from Japan last month over Tokyo’s plan to release tritium-laced treated water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, creating tension between the two countries.

“From now on, national travel agencies and online travel companies will resume operating outbound group tours and ‘air ticket and hotel’ business for Chinese citizens to relevant countries and regions,” China’s Culture and Tourism Ministry said Thursday.

Beijing had barred group tours to Japan since January 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unclear when the first batch of Chinese group tourists will visit Japan since travel agencies need to make arrangements.

The latest list of countries to which China allows group tours also include South Korea, the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. China has been gradually allowing group tours to other countries — a list that had grown to 60 as of Wednesday — after the Asian powerhouse ended its “zero-COVID'' restrictions late last year.

Japan, however, had not been part of the list, and the hospitality industry had been looking forward to the change of policy from Beijing.

Prior to the announcement, Yoshihiko Isozaki, deputy chief Cabinet secretary, said leaders of the two countries agreed last November to resume in-person exchanges between Japanese and Chinese citizens that had dampened during the pandemic.

“The government will continue to make efforts so that in-person exchanges become robust once again,” he said during a regular news conference.

In 2019, before the pandemic, about 9.6 million Chinese visitors came to Japan, where they spent some ¥1.77 trillion, or about a third of the total amount all foreign visitors spent in the country, according to the Japan Tourism Agency.

But there were only 594,600 Chinese visitors in the first half of this year, compared to 4.5 million during the same period in 2019. According to Dragon Trail International, a market research firm in China, Japan was ranked fourth among destinations Chinese travelers plan to visit this year, after Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand.

China has allowed individual travelers to visit Japan, but Tokyo has restrictions for issuing visas for individual tourists. Only researchers, students and those with a “certain level of financial capability” and their family members are allowed visas for up to 30 days.

This was a significant hurdle for ordinary Chinese tourists to travel to Japan. At present, the number of visa applications at the Japanese Embassy in China is about half the number seen before the pandemic, Kyodo News reported.

Stock prices for airlines and railway operators jumped in the Tokyo market following the news of China's pandemic ban being lifted.

Kotaro Toriumi, an aviation and travel analyst, said because of the weakening yen, many Chinese are eager to come to Japan to shop in places like Tokyo’s upscale Ginza district.

“Hotel prices may rise because of more Chinese tourists visiting Japan,” said Toriumi. “And there may not be enough hotels to accommodate them if the number rapidly increases.”

How quickly the numbers will return to pre-pandemic levels also depends on whether flights between the two countries increase and how many visas Japan issues for tour groups, he said.

“But it could be back to pre-pandemic levels in six months or so, around the Chinese New Year (early next year),” said Toriumi.