Japanese news agency Kyodo reported on Tuesday that the Japanese government and its ruling coalition “are making arrangements” to exempt tourists from the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam from the visa requirement in an effort to boost tourism.

Though the Japanese Embassy in Manila has clarified that the proposal to waive the visa requirement for Filipino tourists to Japan remains to be a plan, the Philippines' Ambassador to Japan Manolo Lopez cited "We are just awaiting the official advice, but from reliable sources and from the newspaper accounts that have come out already, it seems that its likely going to happen sometime in June of this year.

According to the Kyodo report, the proposal is aimed at attracting more tourists from Southeast Asia in order to boost arrivals in Japan ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Last year, Japan waived the visa requirement for Thai and Malaysian. Kyodo said this led to a 61 percent increase in tourist arrivals from the two countries.

It should be noted that the waived visa is only applicable for e-passport holders, nationals who do not hold an ordinary biometric passport with an embedded microchip that is compliant with ICAO International Civil Aviation Organisation standards will remain advised to obtain a visa.

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