Japanese passport became the strongest travel document
Published at: 26/10/2018 05:23 pm
The Japanese passport became the most influential travel document and had overtaken Singapore.
After obtaining the right for Japanese citizens to enter in Myanmar during the first days of October, the Far-Eastern country's citizens enjoy visa-free or at least visa on arrival access to 190 jurisdictions, meanwhile a Singaporean passport grants to the hassle-free entrance only in 189 countries. There are several passport rankings, and Japan became the first according to the Henley and Partners Passport Index. However, on the other market "semi-official" passport comparison site, it is still Singapore in the first place. Previously Japan and Singapore shared the first place, and Germany was the second. Now, the EU's leading economy shares the third place with South Korea and France, their citizens after the new agreements with Myanmar and Uzbekistan can now enter in 188 countries.
The quarterly ranking showed that Denmark, Finland, Italy, Spain and Sweden tied for fourth. Meanwhile, the US shares the fifth place with Canada, Switzerland and Ireland. The next Asian country on the list is Malaysia, ranked 11. The most robust African passport is issued by the Seychelles (26.)
Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan hold the bottom positions on the index. Afghanistan and Iraq have only 30 accessible travel destinations to their citizens.
There are several other jurisdictions not included in the Henley Passport Index that offer even less travel freedom but issue their travel documents; these are mostly unrecognized countries such as Somaliland.
From the historical point of view, European passports dominate the passport rankings. France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Luxembourg and Belgium could remain in the same excellent positions for more than ten years! Meanwhile, the fresh EU Member States managed to make it into the top ten, like Finland, Czech Republic, Malta, Hungary and Slovakia.
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