Japan to relax travel advisory for Pakistan

Islamabad : Seeing Pakistan’s extensive crackdown on terrorism pay off, Japan says it will soften travel advisory for the South Asian country.

“Pakistan has made impressive strides in addressing internal security threats, especially terrorism, over the years, so it’s now safe for tourists. In this light, we [Japan] are reviewing security guidelines about travelling to Pakistan and will downgrade the country in terms of security threat. This initiative will encourage both tourism and business from our land here,” Japanese ambassador Matsuda Kuninori told reporters here.

The envoy said his embassy would invite Japanese journalists to Pakistan to see and write about tourist attractions and Buddhist pilgrimage sites.

He said Buddhists were the second largest religious group in Japan, so they’re interested in their pilgrimage sites in Taxila and Takht Bhai, major centres of Gandhara Civilisation (1400–800 BCE), while other major tourist places included the Indus Valley, which flourished around 3,000 BC, in the northwest and mountainous areas in the northeast like Hunza.

Matsuda Kuninori said the embassy also intended to begin a Japanese language programme besides collaborating with Pakistan’s public sector Overseas Employment Corporation to teach Pakistanis the Japanese language and increase their knowledge of Japan’s history, culture and development.

“We’re trying to create robust linkages between Pakistani and Japanese universities but these efforts will take time to show results, especially due to the coronavirus-induced restrictions,” he said.

The envoy also said he visited some Pakistani universities for the launch of Japanese language programmes and intended to visit more besides bringing teachers from Japan to Pakistan but the pandemic threw a spanner in the works.

He said skilled workers from Pakistan with good Japanese speaking and writing ability would find jobs in Japan by themselves or with the help of the Overseas Employment Corporation.

The envoy said he wanted to see more and more Pakistanis go to Japan to avail themselves of massive employment opportunities.

He said Japan suffered from a rapidly ageing and shrinking population and labour force, so it had decided to import skilled workers from Pakistan and nine other countries without fixing any quota.

“Under the New Status of Residence initiative meant to address the serious labour shortage with the help of experienced, skilled foreign human resources, we [Japan] have opened our labour market to foreigners, including Pakistanis. The ‘highly skilled visa’ will be issued to IT engineers, doctors, professors, accountants and lawyers, ‘specified working visa’ to workers in agricultural, fishing, automobile, food, healthcare and construction sectors, and ‘technical intern visa’ to the 20- to 30-year-olds, students and graduates,” he said.

The envoy said Pakistanis were loving people, had deep love for Japan, and possessed good English skills, so the Japanese companies would prefer to hire them compared with other foreigners.

He praised Pakistan’s cohesive society and said the people were so connected that they helped each other whenever the need arose.

“The closeness of the people irrespective of their financial or social status has brought about a strong social system here. This is the main strength of Pakistani society,” he said.

The ambassador showered praise on the Pakistanis settled in Japan for work or business to be law-abiding, committed and honest people.