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| Hundreds of people line up to apply for tourist visas at the Korean Consulate on June 1, Tokyo. Korea resumed issuing the travel visas from June 1 after suspensions due to the COVID-19 outbreak. AP-Yonhap |
By Lee Hae-rin
Starting this month, the Korean government resumed issuing tourist visas for the first time in two years, but many Japanese visitors who want to travel to the neighboring country still face difficulties obtaining them, as evidenced by a long line formed by applicants in front of the Korean Embassy in Tokyo.
Some of them waited in line since the previous night to apply for visas.
The long wait is mainly due to a resurgence in travel demand, which pushed the embassy's capacity beyond its means to issue visas.
Korea and Japan had allowed no-visa entries into each other's country for short-term travelers staying for less than 90 days, but the system has been suspended since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As all Koreans who want to travel to Japan, or vice-versa, need to obtain visas, the embassy has been dealing with the visa issuance since last week.
The embassy has even assigned officials from other divisions to consular tasks to meet the enormous increase in demand for tourist visas, an official from the Korean embassy in Japan said.
Due to the time required for the administrative process, the embassy set a limit to the number of visa issuances. The consulate received 205 applications on the first day, but it was reduced to 150. Ten Korean consulates in Japan, including the one in Tokyo, have been receiving applications for tourist visas.
The consulate is considering an online reservation system to mitigate the inconveniences of waiting in line. However, the number of visa issuances cannot be changed due to administrative reasons.
Since over 10 million people traveled between the two countries during the year before the pandemic, the visa issuance capacity is not expected to meet Japanese travelers' demand to visit Korea.
The fundamental solution to meet the surge in travel demand and mitigate the inconvenience could be to operate the 90-day tourist visa waiver program again.
However, it is against the principles of reciprocity for Korea to take visa exemption measures for Japan, as the country has suspended the visa waiver program on individual foreign travelers.
Meanwhile, Japan will allow the entry of foreign nationals traveling in guided group tours from June 10, while still restricting individual international arrivals.
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