The head of Japan's largest business lobby suggested Monday that the country's border controls aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus are not based on solid epidemiological grounds and called on the government to further ease them by simplifying immigration procedures.
Masakazu Tokura — who leads the Japan Business Federation, also known as Keidanren — said at a news conference that the government's decision to raise the cap on the daily number of entrants starting next month, from the current 3,500 to 5,000, is not enough.
Tokura said he believes the real reasons for the lack of easing are complicated immigration and tracing procedures for people entering Japan. To solve what he sees as a bottleneck, the chairman of the lobby requested that the government use more digital technology.