[Blog]Suspending Japan’s Visa Waiver With Turkey: Why the Realistic Answer Is JESTA (and Clear Advance Notice)

2026-01-18

Saitama Governor Motohiro Ono has again asked Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to temporarily suspend the mutual visa waiver agreement between Japan and Turkey, citing growing local unease and the pressure placed on municipalities (Asahi Shimbun). When such requests appear, the discussion tends to polarize into “suspend the waiver” versus “keep it.” But a visa waiver is not just an immigration control tool; it is also an infrastructure for tourism, business travel, and people-to-people exchange. A blunt suspension would inevitably affect all Turkish nationals who travel lawfully for short stays. For that reason, the more realistic policy direction is to strengthen pre-departure screening through JESTA (Japan’s version of ESTA) and, even before its full rollout, use clear advance notice and public communication to deter misuse.

What a Visa Waiver Means: Convenience Up Front, Screening at the Border Still Remains

A visa waiver arrangement allows eligible travelers to enter without obtaining a visa in advance, typically for short stays such as tourism or certain business purposes. It reduces time, paperwork, and cost for ordinary travelers and helps sustain regular cross-border movement. Crucially, visa-free travel does not mean “no checks”: entry screening at the border still exists. A visa waiver simply removes the pre-travel visa application step, shifting the first major checkpoint to the moment of arrival.

Why Visa Waivers Have Worked in the Past—and When Suspension Was “Effective”

Visa waivers have historically been valuable because they lower friction for legitimate travel and support economic and cultural exchange. However, when a waiver is widely exploited for overstays, governments sometimes respond with suspension. A well-known Japanese example involves Iranian nationals in the early 1990s. Nishiyama Immigration Service explains that Japan and Iran had a short-stay visa exemption for tourism, which meant that “if you had an airline ticket, you could enter Japan easily,” because of the visa waiver arrangement (Nishiyama Immigration Service). The same source notes that Japan “temporarily suspended the visa waiver in 1991” and then “made visas mandatory from 1992,” and that “as a result, the number of overstayers decreased sharply, falling to one-tenth of the peak by 2001” (same source). This illustrates that suspension can act as a powerful brake at the “front door” when a waiver is systematically abused.

Why Doing the Same With Turkey Is Hard: The Impact Spreads Across an Entire Nationality

Even if the public discussion is driven by concerns about a subset of cases, suspending a visa waiver applies broadly to an entire nationality’s short-term travel. That means lawful tourists, business visitors, and family visitors would all face new visa costs and delays, which can disrupt ordinary travel and create diplomatic and economic ripple effects. In other words, the policy tool is strong—but precisely because it is so broad, it is also politically and practically difficult to deploy as a default response. This is why, in reality, governments often prefer more targeted screening measures before taking the “all travelers” step of a full suspension.

What JESTA Is: Keeping Visa-Free Travel While Adding a Pre-Departure Checkpoint

JESTA is commonly described as a Japan-style electronic travel authorization system for visa-exempt visitors. In an explainer titled “The Role Japan’s ESTA (JESTA) Plays in Preventing Illegal Overstays,” JESTA is defined as “an online travel authorization system that foreigners staying in Japan for a short period obtain in advance, particularly targeting travelers from visa-exempt countries” (Nishiyama Immigration Service). In practical terms, JESTA aims to move part of the screening process from arrival to before departure—so that individuals must submit information online and be assessed before they board a flight.

The Purpose of JESTA: Identify High-Risk Cases Before Arrival and Reduce Overstay Risk

The same source explains that, under JESTA, travelers would apply online in advance and undergo government screening, enabling authorities to identify “high-risk” individuals before entry—such as those with past overstay records, criminal histories, or suspected terrorism links—and to deny travel authorization where appropriate (same source). It also states that requiring details such as accommodation and purpose of travel helps officials detect “suspicious behavior or unnatural plans” in advance, and that collecting information beforehand can improve border management efficiency and allow resources to focus on genuine risks (same source). In short, JESTA is designed to preserve much of the convenience of a visa waiver while making screening more granular and preventive.

Conclusion: Suspension Is Too Blunt—So “Wait for JESTA,” and Use Early Notice to Create Deterrence Now

If suspending the visa waiver with Turkey would impose broad burdens on legitimate travelers and create significant diplomatic and economic consequences, the realistic policy path is to treat JESTA as the main instrument for strengthening screening. But “waiting” should not mean doing nothing. A practical approach is to accelerate preparations for JESTA—data requirements, inter-agency coordination, operational capacity—and, importantly, to communicate early and clearly that visa-exempt travel will soon require pre-travel authorization. Early notice and public messaging can deter misuse before the system is fully live, because people traveling with improper intentions may reconsider when they know pre-departure screening is imminent and strict. At the same time, legitimate travelers benefit from a transition period and clear instructions, reducing confusion and friction.

Rather than framing the issue as a binary choice—keep the waiver or suspend it—Japan can aim for a staged solution: maintain visa-free travel while tightening the “front door” through JESTA and using advance notice and outreach to start changing behavior immediately. That combination offers a more targeted, lower-cost way to address municipal burdens and public anxiety without applying a sweeping restriction to all Turkish nationals.