TOKYO, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tourists planning to visit the three quake-hit prefectures in northeastern Japan will be granted three-year multiple-entry visas to the country, local media reported on Sunday.
Only individual visitors can get the visas, which will enable them to stay up to 90 days in their first visit. The tourists are able to choose any part of the country to stay from their second visit onward.
Chinese travel agencies are requested to make sure that a visitor will stay at least overnight in one of the three prefectures which were hit hardest in the March 11 disasters last year, according to a Kyodo News report.
Government data showed that travelers from China accounted for the second-largest number of overseas visitors to Japan last year.
The move is seen as part of the government's efforts to restore the country's tourist industry by attracting more individual Chinese visitors with considerable purchasing power. It will also contribute to the reconstruction of the quake-hit areas.
Similar step was taken by the Japanese government last year. The government allowed Chinese tourists to visit Japan's southernmost prefecture of Okinawa on multiple-entry visas from last July.
Japan's tourism sector suffered from the impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the nuclear accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant last year.
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