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Japan Considering Expansion Of E-Visa Issuance: How To Apply in 2023?

(CTN NEWS) – Japan, a country known for its rich cultural heritage, stunning landscapes, and technological prowess, has been making waves in the world of tourism. One of the key contributors to this surge in tourism is innovative approach to Japan’s E-Visa services.
In March 2023, Japan’s Foreign Ministry introduced an electronic visa service in more than 10 countries and regions, revolutionizing the way tourists can explore this captivating nation.
Today, we’ll delve into the success of this system and explore the plans to expand it to even more countries.
The E-Visa Service
The electronic visa service introduced by Japan’s Foreign Ministry has been nothing short of a hit. It enables eligible applicants to obtain short-term stay visas without the need to visit their local Japanese embassy or consulate.
Initially launched in select countries, the service quickly gained popularity. In June, Japan extended this convenience to Chinese applicants, further enhancing the program’s reach.
The Impact on Tourism
The impact of the electronic visa service on Japan’s tourism industry has been remarkable. Data from the Japan National Tourism Organization reveals that in the first eight months of 2023, approximately 15.19 million foreign tourists entered Japan.
This figure represents about 69% of the total number recorded in the same period of 2019, a pre-pandemic benchmark.
It’s evident that the streamlined application process facilitated by electronic visas has played a pivotal role in the resurgence of inbound tourism.
Japan E-Visa Application Process in 2023
Before you initiate the application process for a Japan e-visa in 2023, there are certain prerequisites that must be met. Please ensure you fulfill these requirements before proceeding with your e-visa application.
Application Prerequisites:
- If the visa application is being submitted by a proxy on behalf of the applicant, a letter of authorization must be provided. This letter should clearly state that the visa application process has been entrusted to the representative. Additionally, the representative should download the “visa issuance notice” from the Japan e-visa website and deliver it to the applicant in either digital or printed format.
- In cases where the applicant is a minor traveling without their parents, a parental consent form is mandatory.
Application Process:
Follow these steps to complete your Japan e-visa application:
- Begin by determining the specific type of visa required for your visit to Japan and identify the necessary documents to be submitted.
- Visit the official Japan e-visa website and register using your email address.
- From the “Visa application list,” select “New Registration.”
- Carefully complete the application form, ensuring that all required information is provided accurately.
- Submit all the necessary supporting documents along with your application.
- The results of your visa application will be communicated to the email address you registered with.
- If visa fees are applicable, you will receive a notification of the amount via email. Payment instructions will be provided. If the email indicates “payment required,” your e-visa will be issued upon successful payment. However, if your e-visa is exempt from charges, it will be automatically processed and sent to your registered email address.
Important Note:
Please be aware that applicants are required to log into the Japan e-visa website and present the “visa issuance notice” at the departure airport on a mobile device screen, such as a smartphone or tablet. PDF formats or screenshots of the page will not be accepted.
Ensure that you follow these steps diligently to successfully apply for your Japan e-visa in 2023.
Plans for Expansion
Given the success of the electronic visa service, Japan’s immigration authorities are actively considering expanding the system to other countries and regions.
This move aims to further simplify the visa application process and accommodate the increasing number of tourists as social distancing protocols have ended.
If the plan is executed, applicants from all eligible countries and regions (except China) will have the convenience of paying for visa fees using credit cards.
Exploring Japan: A Land of Tradition and Innovation
Japan’s allure as a tourist destination is undeniable. It offers a unique blend of tradition and innovation that captivates travelers from around the world.
From the bustling metropolis of Tokyo to the serene temples of Kyoto, Japan has something for every type of traveler.
- Tokyo: Japan’s dynamic capital, where tradition and modernity coexist harmoniously.
- Kyoto: A city steeped in history, with serene temples, bamboo groves, and traditional tea houses.
- Osaka: Known for vibrant street food and bustling markets, a food lover’s paradise.
- Hiroshima: Home to the Peace Memorial Park, a poignant reminder of history and hope.
- Nara: Friendly deer and ancient temples make this city a unique experience.
- Hokkaido: Offers natural beauty and adventure, with Sapporo’s vibrant culture as a highlight.
- Mount Fuji: Iconic and breathtaking, a symbol of Japan’s natural beauty.
- Hakone: Famous for its hot springs, providing relaxation and rejuvenation.
Conclusion
Japan’s journey into the world of electronic visa services has not only simplified travel for tourists but has also contributed significantly to the country’s tourism revival.
As plans are underway to expand this system to more countries and regions, Japan is poised to welcome even more travelers eager to explore its unique blend of tradition and innovation.
Whether you’re drawn to ancient temples, bustling cities, or natural wonders, Japan has something to offer every traveler, and now, getting there is easier than ever before. So, why wait? Start planning your Japanese adventure today!
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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.
According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.
Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.
Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding
Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.
Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.
Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.
To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.
Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.
On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.
In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.
Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

Pixa Bay
Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding
On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.
TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.
When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.
And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.
Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.
A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.
Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.
But today, it feels more like reality.
Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.
SOURCE | CNN
News
2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Washington — Trump Media, The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.
The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.
The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.
The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case
Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.
Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.
Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.
The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case
That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.
The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.
SOURCE | AP
News
The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.
The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.
Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.
This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.
In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.
The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.
This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.
The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.
In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.
According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.
Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.
The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.
Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.
For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.
Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.
As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.
As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.
The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.
SOURCE: AP
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