Taiwanese tourists traveling to Japan from next year could undergo Japanese immigration and customs screening processes before leaving Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, a report published in the Nikkei Asian Review said yesterday.
The preclearance program, which applies to tourists visiting Japan from Taiwan or South Korea, could be in place by the middle of next year, the report said.
According to the report, the Japanese government had a similar program for Taiwanese and South Korean tourists between May 2005 and September 2009. It canceled the program in October 2009 by requiring visitors in the program to provide photographs and fingerprints upon arrival.
However, the Japanese government is seeking to reintroduce the program because it is working to raise the number of international travelers to 40 million by 2020, up from 19.74 million last year, the report said.
Easing airport congestion would be one of Tokyo’s main challenges in the years to come, the report said, adding that foreign visitors at Kansai International Airport have reportedly waited as long as 84 minutes for immigration screening.
The preclearance program is applicable to tourists from South Korea or Taiwan because they accounted for one-third of all international visitors to Japan last year, the report said, citing data from the Japan Tourism Agency.
Taiwanese visitors using the preclearance program would have photographs and fingerprints examined by Japanese immigration officers stationed in Taiwan, the report said.
After they arrive in Japan, they could skip the screening procedures they had already completed in Taiwan and leave the airport quickly through a special lane at customs.
Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) senior vice president Wen Yung-sung (溫永松) said the airport company is still waiting further instruction from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, which must first seek approval from the Executive Yuan before the program can be initiated.
Neither the ministry nor the Executive Yuan have given any policy instruction at this point, he said.
Wen said the company would need to consider if the terminals at the Taoyuan airport have enough space to set up facilities for the Japanese immigration and customs officials. It must also consider if such facilities would hinder the traffic of passengers inside the terminals, he said.
“We lack the space to accommodate additional facilities inside the terminals, so we need to conduct a comprehensive assessment concerning the program,” Wen said.
Statistics from the Civil Aeronautics Administration showed Taoyuan airport has about 600 flights to Japan each week, including flights to Tokyo, Nagoya, Hakodate, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Hiroshima and other cities in Japan.
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