Japan to ease visitor restrictions for Olympics: report

Japan plans to let in large amounts of foreign visitors during next year's Olympic games, and relax coronavirus restrictions on them.

That's according to a report in Japan's Nikkei business daily.

It says that foreigners coming to Tokyo for the games will not be required to quarantine for 14 days, as is required now.

And they will not need to have received a vaccine, if one is approved by the time the games take place in July next year.

All that will be required is a negative covid test result and for foreign arrivals to download a smartphone tracking app.

According to the paper, nearly one million tickets have been sold overseas, compared with 4.5 million tickets sold in Japan.

More than 11,000 athletes are expected to take part in the games and thousands more will come for the subsequent Paralympics.

Japan is ramping up its preparations for the event, and on Tuesday an Olympic rings monument was reinstalled in Tokyo Bay.

The 2020 Games were pushed back by a year in March because of the global pandemic.

The postponement, as well as extra public health measures, are expected to cost Japan almost a billion dollars.