TRAVEL between Japan and Vietnam resumed on Thursday as both countries ease restrictions imposed to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
A chartered flight carrying 150 passengers, mainly businessmen, left Narita airport in Tokyo for the Van Don International Airport in northern Vietnam.
Two more flights from Japan are expected this week, carrying around 300 more Japanese businessmen.
However, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said in a statement posted in a government website that Vietnam has no plans to open up to international tourists yet over fears that doing so could lead to a second wave of infections.
He said Vietnam will not rush to open its doors, although highly-skilled foreign experts such as engineers have been allowed to enter Vietnam on special flights and quarantined at hotels in a bid to keep the economy afloat throughout the pandemic.
All 150 passengers who arrived on Thursday wore protective suits and informed authorities of their medical status upon entry.
Their body temperatures were scanned and their luggage was sanitised.
Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had said last week that an agreement was reached with Japan to gradually relax travel restrictions between the two countries.
Vietnam said the Japanese visitors have to take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) Covid-19 test upon arrival and observe a two-week quarantine period in a hotel.
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi had said that Japan would partially ease travel restrictions to Vietnam, with limited flights between the two countries permitted.
According to the Vn Express news portal, Vietnam has also been in talks with China, Japan, South Korea and some other countries and territories on gradually recommencing travel, first for businessmen, managers and skilled workers.
Vietnam had banned entry of foreign nationals and suspended international flights in late March. But it has been receiving special flights which repatriated Vietnamese citizens from around the world and carried foreign businessmen and workers needed in major economic projects.
Many of these flights ended up in Van Don, which is not far from Hanoi. Since February, the Van Don Airport has served 31 flights carrying around 5,000 foreigners, including from South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
The airport has also received 37 repatriation flights to bring home around 6,100 Vietnamese.
Japan, meanwhile, has an entry ban in place for 111 countries and territories to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
Japan was Vietnam's fourth largest investor in 2019 after South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore in terms of registered capital. It also took some 80,000 Vietnamese workers last year.
As of Thursday, Japan had recorded over 18,000 coronavirus cases and nearly 1,000 deaths. Vietnam has confirmed 352 cases, with just 23 remaining active.
There has been no Covid-19 death in the country.