Japan's transport ministry has cancelled its blanket ban on new reservations for inbound flights and asked airlines to accommodate the needs of returning Japanese, a senior government spokesperson said on Thursday.
The government last month told airlines not to take new reservations for flights to Japan for December in light of the emergence of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
But the abrupt measure stirred up worries among those who had intended to return to Japan for year-end holidays, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the move had caused confusion.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a regular news conference that Kishida had asked the transport ministry, which oversees the airline industry, to be mindful of returning Japanese.
"I understand the transport ministry has cancelled its instruction for the blanket suspension of new reservations and asked airlines anew to give sufficient consideration to the needs of returning Japanese nationals," Matsuno said.
Airlines now take new reservations as long as the number of passengers entering Japan remains below the latest upper limit of 3,500 a day, which was lowered from 5,000 last month, a transport ministry official said.
Israel is poised to send troops into Rafah, the Gazan city it sees as the last bastion of Hamas, Israeli media reported on Wednesday, saying preparations were under way to evacuate war-displaced Palestinian civilians who have been sheltering there.
A Russian court on Wednesday ordered one of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu's deputies be kept in custody on suspicion of taking bribes, the highest-profile corruption case since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, a senior figure in the country's ruling party, met with Donald Trump on Tuesday, becoming the latest US ally seeking to establish ties with the Republican presidential candidate.
Russian missiles damaged residential buildings and injured six people in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, early on Wednesday, Governor Oleh Synehubov said on Telegram.
Five migrants died in an attempt to cross the English Channel from France to Britain in an overcrowded small boat on Tuesday, hours after Britain passed a bill to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda in a move to deter the dangerous journeys.