Japan now has visa-free access to 190 countries, versus 189 for Singapore. Germany shares third spot with South Korea and France, which all have visa-free access to 188 countries.
Tokyo: There’s a new leader in the international passport index. Thanks to gaining visa-free access to Myanmar this month, Japan has toppled Singapore to claim the top spot for holding the world’s most powerful passport. In the latest reshuffling of the Henley Passport Index, which is updated in real-time, Japan pushed Singapore down to second spot, and Germany to third.
Japan now has visa-free access to 190 countries, versus 189 for Singapore. Germany shares third spot with South Korea and France, which all have visa-free access to 188 countries. France was able to climb to third spot after gaining visa-free access to Uzbekistan last week.
Overall, the United Arab Emirates has made the biggest progress on the index, leaping from 62nd place in 2006, to 21st spot today.
Both the US and the UK, meanwhile, continued their downward slide from fourth to fifth place since the beginning of 2018, with 186 destinations. The two had shared the top spot in 2015.
Here’s the top 10 list, updated:
1. Japan 190 countries
2. Singapore 189
3. Germany, South Korea, France 188
4. Denmark, Finland, Italy, Sweden, Spain 187
5. Norway United Kingdom, Austria, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, USA 186
6. Belgium, Switzerland, Ireland, Canada, 185
7. Australia, Greece, Malta 183
8. New Zealand, Czech Republic 182
9. Iceland 181
10. Hungary, Slovenia, Malaysia 180
(CTTO)
