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Japan recently announced that if you have received three doses of an approved COVID vaccine, you are exempted from the previous requirement to get a negative PCR test within 72 hours of departure.

However, in many countries, children below 12 are not eligible to get a third/booster dose yet. Are there any exceptions for children?

I eyeballed the official changes to regulation (in convoluted Japanese bureaucratese) but was not able to find any: the changes when boiled down just says a test result (検査証明) is not required if you hold a certificate of finishing three doses (ワクチン３回目接種済みであることの証明書), implying that the old rules continue to apply if you don't.

ワクチン３回目接種済みであることの証明書を保持している場合は、出国前72時間以内の検査証明の提出を求めないこととする。

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    If I understand the rules correctly, it seems there was an exception for pre-school age children in the testing requirement, making the question moot for them. That would be an exception for children. It does leave children between 6 and 12…
    – Relaxed
    Commented Sep 2, 2022 at 11:45
  • Also the requirement is three doses, not at least two doses with the last booster since less than X months? There are many reasons people might not have three doses yet, if you didn't start your vaccination course as soon as it was available, you might very well not be eligible for a third booster yet, even as an adult.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Sep 2, 2022 at 11:47
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    @Relaxed The Japanese letter of the law (regulation) states quite clearly that it's three doses that matters,.no distinction between boosters or otherwise.
    – lambshaanxy
    Commented Sep 2, 2022 at 14:26
  • In countries without a centralized vaccine tracking system you could easily get a third dose by pretending you didn't have the first two. It's not like there's a shortage of vaccines at this point.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Commented Sep 2, 2022 at 17:11
  • @JonathanReez Unfortunately Singapore is not one of those countries...
    – lambshaanxy
    Commented Sep 3, 2022 at 7:05

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Yes there is such an exception:

For children under the age of 18 who have not received booster shots (third doses) or do not obtain vaccination certificates, if they are accompanied by a guardian with a valid vaccination certificate and who will supervise the children, they will be regarded as holders of valid vaccination certificates, as an exception.

If children under the age of 18 without holding vaccination certificates enter Japan by themselves (without being accompanied by a guardian with a valid vaccination certificate), they are not eligible for the above exception.

Source

If you think about it, if there was no such exception, those with children that can't get the booster shot can't enter Japan with their children! :(

Edit: Now the link shows a 404 Not Found (pandemic is over!)

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    Brilliant! Thanks so much for digging this up. That said, kids could previously enter Japan as well, they just needed to take PCR tests.
    – lambshaanxy
    Commented Sep 7, 2022 at 5:39
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    > Unfortunately, now the link shows a 404 Not Found => yes, the pandemic is now luckily over :-)
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Commented Apr 30 at 15:35

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