Following a four-year suspension, China will again start allowing visa-free travel for Japanese nationals visiting the country for up to 30 days from Nov. 30, the Foreign Ministry in Beijing announced on Friday.

The exemption ¡ª announced along with similar measures for several other countries ¡ª will continue through the end of 2025.

China had previously granted citizens of Singapore, Japan and Brunei visa-free travel for up to 15 days but suspended the exemption program during the COVID-19 pandemic. While China reinstated the measure for Singapore and Brunei in July 2023, it did not resume visa-free visits for Japanese nationals until now.

The announcement came as China attempts to form a closer relationship with Japan after a period of heightened tensions between the two countries. Beijing¡¯s anti-espionage crackdown has resulted in the jailing of a Japanese executive, while Tokyo has raised serious concerns over two deadly incidents targeting Japanese children in recent months.

During the inaugural in-person meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba last week, the two leaders said they would ¡°deepen and expand people-to-people exchange¡± between the two countries ¡ª an expression that was missing from Xi¡¯s meeting with Ishiba¡¯s predecessor a year earlier.

¡°Given that the foundation of Japan-China relations lies above all in exchanges between the peoples of both countries, Japan has repeatedly requested the early resumption of visa exemption measures from China at various levels,¡± said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi on Friday afternoon.

¡°We hope that the recently announced visa exemption measures by the Chinese side will further facilitate exchanges between the two countries,¡± he added.

Japanese business organizations, including the country¡¯s largest business lobby Keidanren and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China, have been repeatedly urging Beijing to resume the visa-free program.

Former Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight Toshihiro Nikai, known for his strong personal network with politicians in Beijing, pressed China on this issue during his visit in August. Keizai Doyukai Chairman Takeshi Niinami, who is also the CEO of beverages giant Suntory, urged Chinese Vice President Han Zheng to reinstate the policy during a meeting between the two earlier this month in Beijing.

Since late 2023, Beijing has been gradually granting interim unilateral visa-free arrangements to a number of European and Southeast Asian countries, as well as Australia and New Zealand. Most recently, Beijing waived visa requirements for citizens of nine countries earlier this month, including South Korea, Norway and Slovakia, until the end of 2025.

China saw 8.19 million inbound trips by foreign nationals in the third quarter of 2024, a 48.8% year-on-year increase from 2023, Tong Xuejun, a Foreign Ministry official, said at a news conference in Beijing on Friday. Among them, 4.89 million had entered the country via visa-free arrangements.