Japan's government is moving faster to ease travel advisories for areas with armed conflict so its domestic corporations do not miss overseas business opportunities.
Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported on the 10th (local time) that Japan's Foreign Ministry is more proactively lowering travel advisories for countries where armed conflict continues or conditions are unstable than before.
According to Nikkei, Japanese corporations have asked the government to lower travel advisories, saying they could fall behind U.S. and European corporations if reconstruction projects in the Middle East, damaged by recent armed conflict, get into full swing.
Japan last month downgraded travel advisories for most areas in seven Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), from "Level 3 (advise against travel)" to "Level 2 (avoid nonessential travel)." The move reflects that local conditions stabilized after the United States and Iran agreed to a temporary truce in June.
A Foreign Ministry official said, "Over the past six months we have been adjusting travel advisory levels more quickly," and noted, "The views of corporations became an important catalyst for discussing how to operate travel advisories."
A similar case appeared in Venezuela, which experienced political turmoil. In May, after continued requests led by the auto industry and others to ease travel advisories, the Japanese government conducted an on-site inspection. The Foreign Ministry judged that public safety conditions were not significantly different from normal and lowered travel advisories for most areas of Venezuela from Level 3 to Level 2.
Japan also made partial adjustments to its travel advisories for Ukraine. In January this year, while maintaining "Level 4 (evacuation advisory and no travel)" for all of Ukraine, Japan allowed visits to the relatively safe western Lviv Oblast for reconstruction and recovery purposes on the condition that a prior plan is submitted and coordinated with authorities.
Japanese corporations are also showing interest in Ukraine's reconstruction projects, but most corporations have internal rules not to dispatch employees to high-risk countries, so the government's travel advisories effectively determine whether they participate, Nikkei reported.
Japan has been known not to lower travel advisories easily, putting the safety of its nationals first. Also, because it sets levels with reference to travel advisories from the Group of Seven (G7) and allied countries, it often kept high advisory levels even after local security improved.
A Foreign Ministry official said, "There are almost no cases where Japan is the first among major countries to lower a travel advisory."
But corporations say the government's cautious management of travel advisories undermines competitiveness in overseas business. In fact, in the Japan-Ukraine public-private partnership projects signed in 2024, some corporations were said to have dropped out as Level 4 travel advisories remained in place for all of Ukraine.