Japan Reopened Its Border: Things Travellers Need To Know

#2  Vaccine Certificate or Negative Result Covid Test

You must choose between showing proof of vaccination or negative test results taken within 72 hours before departure for entry into Japan. Just to clarify, you don’t need to be vaccinated to enter Japan. However, if you do not meet the vaccine requirement, you’ll need to go with the pre-trip Covid Test.

To see if your vaccination certificates are qualified for taking the pre-trip covid test, you need to ensure that :

1. Your certificate should contain the following details in Japanese or English language:
   Name, date of birth, product name or manufacturer of vaccines, vaccination date, and the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses. Please be advised that COVID-19 vaccination certificates written in languages other than Japanese or English are considered valid if the translation (Japanese/English) is attached and all the items are identifiable.
2. The certificate should prove that at least two doses (As for JCOVDEN / Janssen, one dose is treated as two doses) of any of the COVID-19 vaccines described in the table a. below are inoculated, and any of the COVID-19 vaccines described in table b. below is inoculated for the third vaccination or after. (Note 2)
   • a. COVID-19 vaccines up to the second dose:
     

     Product Name or Manufacturer

     COMIRNATY, Intramuscular injection / Pfizer

     Vaxzevria, Intramuscular injection / AstraZeneca (Note 3)

     Spikevax, Intramuscular injection / Moderna

     JCOVDEN / Janssen

     COVAXIN / Bharat Biotech

     Nuvaxovid, Intramuscular injection / Novavax (Note 3)

     • (Note 2) Mix-and-match vaccines are also considered valid.
     • (Note 3) In applying measures based on New Border Measures (28), COMIRNATY manufactured by Fosun Pharma / BioNTech and Covishield / COVOVAX manufactured by the Serum Institute of India are treated as identical to COMIRNATY, Intramuscular injection / Pfizer and Vaxzevria, Intramuscular injection / AstraZeneca, Nuvaxovid, Intramuscular injection / Novavax respectively.
   • b. COVID-19 vaccines for the third dose or after:
     

     Product Name or Manufacturer

     COMIRNATY, Intramuscular injection / Pfizer (Note 4)

     Spikevax, Intramuscular injection / Moderna

     Nuvaxovid, Intramuscular injection / Novavax (Note 4)

     Vaxzevria, Intramuscular injection / AstraZeneca (Note 4)

     JCOVDEN / Janssen

     COVAXIN / Bharat Biotech Note : To be recognized as valid after 0:00am(JST) July 31, 2022

     • (Note 4) In applying measures based on New border measures (28), COMIRNATY manufactured by Fosun Pharma / BioNTech and Covishield / COVOVAX manufactured by the Serum Institute of India are treated as identical to COMIRNATY, Intramuscular injection / Pfizer and Vaxzevria, Intramuscular injection / AstraZeneca, Nuvaxovid, Intramuscular injection / Novavax respectively.
3.  The certificate should be issued by an official body, such as a government.

Information is gathered from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan’s website