Japan's long-awaited lifting of border restrictions may not lead to a quick recovery to pre-pandemic levels for the nation's airlines, as the current weakness of the yen is expected not just to boost inbound tourism but also suppress demand for outbound trips, while higher fuel costs will keep airfares high.
Japan on Tuesday removed its cap on daily arrivals, most recently set at 50,000, and resumed visa-free individual trips to the country, discontinuing most of what had been criticized as overly strict COVID-19 border control measures.
That is expected to lead to a surge in inbound tourism, helping Japan's airlines to recover after they battled to survive through a sharp cut in flight services and staff furloughs to trim costs during the coronavirus pandemic.