Japan to require tuberculosis tests for travelers from 6 countries
By KAZUHIRO FUJITANI/ Staff Writer
November 17, 2023 at 16:00 JST
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A building that houses the health ministry in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
The government in fiscal 2024 plans to require people in six countries to take tuberculosis tests before they enter Japan for visits exceeding three months, health minister Keizo Takemi said.
The six countries are the Philippines, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Nepal and Myanmar, Takemi said on Nov. 16, adding that many new TB patients in Japan come from those nations.
Takemi was responding to a question from Kozo Akino, a member of ruling coalition partner Komeito, at a meeting of the Upper House Committee on Health, Labor and Welfare.
People in those countries will be asked to take TB tests at Japanese government-designated medical institutions before they travel to Japan. If they test positive, Japan will not issue visas to them.
Due to the increasing number of foreign-born TB patients in Japan, the ministry in 2018 decided to introduce the testing. But the plan has been delayed.
“We are making preparations for implementation as soon as possible,” Takemi said. “We hope to start in the next fiscal year.”
According to the health ministry, 10,235 new TB patients were registered in Japan in 2022.
But since 2021, the number of TB cases has fallen below 10 per 100,000 population, making Japan a “low endemic” country for TB as classified by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Still, 11.9 percent of the new TB patients are from abroad, and the ratio continues to increase.
There have also been cases of people from countries with high TB rates developing the disease while in Japan. Drug-resistant TB has also become a problem abroad.
