Japan

The Hyatt group is extending its collection of top-of-the-range Unbound hotels in Japan with a flagship hotel for motor sports fans, the Fuji Speedway Hotel. The hotel is adjacent to Fuji Speedway, the historic circuit that has hosted several Formula 1 Grand Prix events and, every year since 1967, a prestigious endurance race, the 6h...

This is a radical change for the government of the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong. It is moving away from Beijing's "zero covid" doctrine, which Hong Kong was forced to follow. At the time, the government of former Chief Executive Carrie Lam made it an absolute priority to open up first and foremost to China.

As Japan reopens its borders to a wider audience, business travellers to Osaka will find a new Mercure hotel from December. To add a fifth hotel in Japan's second-largest city, Accor has teamed up with Japanese hotelier Tokyu Resorts & Stay to create a new Mercure...

Along with China, Japan is one of the last two countries to which travellers still find it difficult to go. But the destination is continuing its policy of reopening its borders step by step. From September 7, Japan will abolish the requirement to present a negative PCR test for Covid less than 72 hours old....

With its strong ties to Japan's high-tech dimension, Yotel will finally be making its debut in a market that is strategic for business customers, and therefore a natural for the hotel chain. "Japan's emphasis on technology and innovation has been a major source of inspiration for Yotel since our inception. We are...

There are some quirks in the selection of destinations in the Michelin Guides. While Paris, Brussels, London, Rome, New York, San Francisco, Bangkok and Tokyo are all included in these prestigious culinary guides, we wondered why some destinations known for their culinary delights had not yet made the list. It's true that...

We will therefore have to wait until 2025 to see Fairmont take its first steps on the Japanese market. The Fairmont Tokyo project was unveiled by the Accor group at the end of May. While information about this first establishment remains sketchy, we do know that it will be a 219-key address. These will be located on the upper floors...

The economic climate remains gloomy for the airline ANA, which has given some outlooks for its business over the coming months. In a note published to coincide with the release of its financial results for fiscal year 2021 (1/04/21 to 31/03/22), the carrier continued to see its results impacted by Covid-related restrictions, particularly...

Although Japan is only tentatively reopening its borders, business travellers will be the first to benefit from the resumption of tourism to the Land of the Rising Sun. To mark the occasion, business travellers will find a new base in Kyoto with a Hyatt Place located in the city centre, at the south-west corner of the Imperial Palace of...

The Japanese government continues to turn a deaf ear to calls from the country's business community. The community is calling for Japan to reopen completely, while the rest of Asia - with the notable exception of China - is once again welcoming international visitors. Japanese and foreign companies based in the country believe that...

After two years of hermetic border closures, Asia finally seems to want to speed up its reopening to the rest of the world. Less restrictive entry regimes are already being applied in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Maldives, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. Malaysia for all Yesterday, it was the turn of...

It won't be as easy a journey as it was before the Covid-19 crisis. But it will nevertheless be an improvement on the previous situation in Japan. The Japanese government has just announced that it will be simplifying entry rules for foreign travellers on business trips. As of this Monday 8 November, the Japanese government...

This is confirmed almost daily. Air travel in Europe is picking up with the acceleration of vaccination. Travellers in possession of the precious sesame that is a vaccination are increasingly authorised to travel. This is good news for Finnair, whose traffic in Helsinki is largely made up of...

Keidanren, the very powerful and normally influential Federation of Japanese Business, sounded the alarm on Monday 6 September. The Japanese economy is weakening faster than it appears due to the isolation of the archipelago. On that day, the Keidanren presented a series of proposals aimed at normalising the country's economic activity. A pressing request at a time when...

China: splendid isolation China was the first country to be hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. But it is also officially the first country to emerge from the health crisis thanks to drastic measures, unprecedented elsewhere, including total control of its population's movements through confinement and intrusive technologies. This success against...

For a few months, Japan opened its borders very slightly. A few international travellers were able to visit Japan as part of a "Business" corridor. However, the door has just been locked again in the face of an upsurge in cases of covid. Until further notice. The archipelago is in a state of emergency....

That was all it took for Japan to pull out the big guns to protect itself from the coronavirus. No sooner had the UK and several European countries announced that they had identified a more contagious covid virus, than Japan returned to splendid isolation. Japan is banning the entry of all non-resident foreign nationals....

The Japan Times reports that the partial opening of Japan's borders to travellers from certain countries could be a factor in the spread of the covid pandemic. Travellers returning from high-risk areas are required to stay indoors for 14 days. Even if they are in possession of a negative PCR test for covid carried out at the time of...

Are we going to see the birth of another mega-carrier in Asia? Asian governments and their obsession with keeping their borders sealed are decimating air transport in the region. And forcing new survival strategies. This is confirmed by AAPA, the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. It has just published the activity of its members...

Just thirty years ago, in October 1990, ANA took off for the first time from Tokyo's Narita airport, bound for Paris CDG. It also made a few stopovers in Moscow, Stockholm and Vienna. Since then, the French catalogue has been greatly expanded, from two weekly flights to a daily service, now operated from...