S’pore & Japan Will Have Green Lane for Official & Business Travel from 18 Sept

If you’ve missed Japan and you’ve always wanted to travel there for the Sakura season and fresh sashimi, I’ve got great news for you.

You can do so from 18 Sep 2020, if you’ve got official business in Japan, that is.

Previously, foreign ministers from both Singapore and Japan met and chit-chatted about how wonderful the air is at Jurong Industrial estate.

Okay, so they didn’t talk about that, but they did meet up.

And they said they want to get travel arrangements up and running as early as 18 Sep.

Well, turns out, they’ve managed to do it.

S’pore & Japan Will Have Green Lane for Official & Business Travel from 18 Sept

On 11 Sep 2020, it was reported that Singapore and Japan will launch a green lane between both countries on 18 Sep 2020.

Similar to our arrangements with other countries, the green lane facilitates travel for official and business purposes only, so if you’re hoping for leisure travel, better make do with the Sakuraesque season in Singapore instead.

This makes Singapore the first country in the entire world to establish connectivity to Japan, Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affair (MFA) says, and they promise that there’ll be safeguards on both sides to keep people safe.

Safeguards In Place

Based on the announcement by MFA, there are several safeguards protecting both Japan and Singapore in this arrangement:

• Covid-19 test before departing and after arriving at the other country
• A controlled itinerary for the first 14 days in the other country

As for the specifics, they will be published on the SafeTravel website and the Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs website by 18 Sep 2020, the live date of the travel arrangement.

Travel Arrangements

With this, Singapore adds one more partner in its quest to open our country up to the world.

Based on the SafeTravel website, Singapore has travel arrangements for three other countries besides Japan:

• Malaysia
• China
• Republic of Korea

All three countries only allow for business or official travels at the moment, except for Malaysia which has the Periodic Commuting Arrangement for long-term work pass holders.

There are two other countries which we’ve totally opened our borders.

They are Brunei Darussalam and New Zealand, where even tourists who want to travel for leisure can come in.

Unfortunately, our gesture wasn’t reciprocated but at least we’ve got 150 tourists from both countries streaming into the country.