The Cabinet approved a bill Tuesday to revise the immigration law to allow people from Taiwan to use their passport as an official document when entering Japan.

The move is intended to reduce paperwork for immigration authorities in response to a recent surge in the number of tourists from Taiwan, immigration officials said. Under the current Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, Taiwanese travelers are required to obtain a "travel certificate" from a local branch office of the Japanese Foreign Ministry before entering Japan.

The law only considers passports issued by nation states as valid, and Japan does not recognize Taiwan as such. The change will enable Taiwanese to use their passports in the same way as people from other parts of the world.

Some 860,000 Taiwanese entered Japan in 1997, up 100,000 from the year before, according to the immigration bureau. The bill will be submitted to the current Diet session, bureau officials said.