Japanese passports. Photo by Shutterstock
The Japanese passport has regained its second place in the latest Henley Passport Index with visa-free access to 188 destinations.
It shared the position with South Korea, both trailing Singapore, whose citizens can access 192 destinations without a visa, according to the index compiled by London-based global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners.
Japan had secured the world’s second most powerful passport along with South Korea in previous rankings, until it dropped to third spot late last year.
Despite its global power, Japanese passport has a low ownership rate compared to other countries’, consistently hovering around 22% to 24% of citizens throughout the 2010s and lower during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Japan Times.
Japan plans to lower the application fee for a 10-year passport for people aged 18 and older to about 9,000 yen (US$58), almost halving the current fee of around 16,000 yen.
The Henley Passport Index tracks global travel freedoms in 227 countries and territories using exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association.
It ranks 199 passports based on the number of destinations their holders can enter without a prior visa. Continuously updated throughout the year to reflect changes in visa policies, the index is widely recognized as a key measure of global mobility.
The five weakest passports belong to Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.
AloJapan.com