More than 1,300 people have applied to travel to Japan on guided tours since the country restarted visa procedures to accept some leisure visitors from abroad a week ago as worries about the COVID-19 pandemic wane, a government agency said Friday.

Koichi Wada, who heads the Japan Tourism Agency, said at a news conference that over 300 applications have been received for June, with around 1,000 from July onward.

The very first group comprising a small number of people arrived in Japan on Wednesday, he said, without revealing their nationalities.