After 3 years, Japan revises Tunisia travel advisory

By Adel al-Thabti

TUNIS

Japanese authorities have revised a three-year-old travel advisory issued for Tunisia in 2015 following a terrorist attack that left three Japanese tourists dead, according to Tunisia’s Foreign Ministry.

“Japanese authorities have decided to revise their longstanding travel warning on Tunisia,” the ministry said in a Tuesday statement.

The warning was first issued by Japan in 2015 following a terrorist attack on Tunis’s Bardo Museum that left 21 people -- including three Japanese tourists -- dead.

Three months later, another attack on a crowed beach in Tunisia’s coastal city of Sousse left 38 foreign tourists dead.

According to the ministry statement, Japan has now reclassified certain parts of Tunisia from a level-2 category (“advised against unessential travel”) to level 1 (“safe destination”).

“The Japanese authorities based their decision on the remarkable improvement of the security situation in these areas and on the absence of terrorist operations in areas included in the 2015 travel warning,” the statement read.

Recent months have seen several countries lift earlier travel warnings on Tunisia, including Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland and Belgium.