Come Sept 18, Singapore will become the first country with which Japan establishes a green lane for essential business and official travel in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This Business Track is mainly for short-term business travellers and will allow cross-border travel and business exchanges between the two countries.

But public health safeguards need to be in place, the foreign affairs ministries of both countries said yesterday.

On the Business Track with Singapore, Japan's Minister for Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said in a media conference that "we will later broaden it to other countries, we hope it can be a good model".

For now, Singapore allows visitors from Brunei, China, Malaysia, New Zealand and South Korea, with a varied number of restrictions in place.