The government on Sunday started administering COVID-19 vaccine shots at Narita and Haneda airports to citizens who temporarily return from abroad to be inoculated.

Those given the shots include people living in places that use vaccines not approved by Japan, as well as residents of some developing countries where the vaccine rollout has been slow.

The government decided to start the inoculations for returnees before the Bon holiday season in mid-August after a Foreign Ministry survey showed many Japanese living abroad who have not yet been inoculated wished to receive shots in Japan, government officials said.