From the dual perspectives of promoting tourism and other people-to-people exchanges between Japan and foreign countries and ensuring safety and peace of mind within Japanese society, Japanese embassies and consulates overseas have been engaged in efforts to issue visas in an appropriate manner. In order to promote people-to-people exchanges with the ROK, the government decided that from March 2006 onwards, the exemption of the temporary visitors visa requirements, which had been provisionally implemented and extended, would remain in effect indefinitely. As for China, in addition to the measure taken in July 2005 which expanded the issuance of group tourism visas for Chinese group tourists to the whole area of China, further measures to facilitate visa procedures were implemented, such as increasing the number of consular offices in China that accept group tourism visa applications from August 2006. Such efforts have been effective, with the number of foreign visitors, particularly visitors from Asia, showing a marked increase.

   At the same time, in order to enhance safety and peace of mind in Japanese society, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held bilateral consultations on consular issues with Turkey, China, the ROK, and Vietnam in 2006, resulting in a strengthening of bilateral dialogue and cooperation to prevent crimes and illegal overstayings. With regard to visa examinations, stringent confirmation of applicants' identities is underway, to prevent, for example, a person from Latin America entering Japan by pretending to be a person of Japanese descent, or a person of Japanese descent with a criminal history entering Japan as a long-term resident. In addition, to prevent human trafficking, which leads to grave violations of the human rights of foreign women and others, various measures have been put in place, resulting in the number of people entering Japan through the abuse of “entertainer” visas decreasing drastically since 2005. To accompany this, the examination of “temporary visitors” visa applications has also been strengthened so that people cannot misuse such visas to enter the country for the purpose of human trafficking.