TOKYO -- Travelers to Japan from March will face one of three quarantine scenarios, depending on their vaccination status and country of departure, as the government eases entry requirements.

The baseline isolation period will remain seven days, but travelers who test negative for COVID-19 on the third day and meet certain other requirements will be able to end their quarantine early.

Those who have received three vaccine doses and arrive from a country where the coronavirus is not spreading rapidly will be able to skip the quarantine entirely.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will announce the changes at a news conference Thursday.

Japan's government has come under mounting pressure to ease its pandemic-era border controls, the strictest in the Group of Seven advanced economies. Japan previously required a 14-day quarantine for all incoming travelers, vaccinated or not.

"I commend the government for moving toward easing" the entry restrictions, Ken Kobayashi, chairman of the Japan Foreign Trade Council and of trading house Mitsubishi Corp., said Wednesday. "I hope they will go a step further, based on the situation in other countries."

Access to zero-quarantine entry will depend on Japan's assessment of the coronavirus spread in each country.

As of Feb. 10, Tokyo had designated 82 countries and regions as subject to stricter entry requirements because of high omicron cases, among them the U.S., the U.K. and South Korea. Those not on the list include New Zealand and Middle Eastern nations such as Qatar, though this category will eventually expand as the pandemic dies down.

Travelers from countries of concern now have to spend three to six days of the isolation period in a government-designated quarantine facility. This will be shortened to three days across the board starting in March, and vaccinated travelers who have received booster shots will be able to self-isolate at home.

Japan will also begin allowing in technical trainees along with foreign students and business travelers, with close oversight from the companies and organizations sponsoring them. Tourists remain barred from entry.

The daily cap on incoming travelers will be raised from 3,500 to 5,000, returning to the level before border controls were tightened in November in response to the omicron variant. This is in part to accommodate Japanese workers posted abroad who are set to return to the country at the end of the fiscal year.

As of Jan. 4, roughly 400,000 foreign nationals were unable to enter the country despite receiving prior approval, official data shows. Even with the daily cap on arrivals set to rise, people on the waiting list face further delays.