Which U.K. Covid testing firms are recognised by Japan

Question

Entry to Japan is now dependent on providing evidence of one of two things:

1. Three doses of a WHO-recognised covid vaccine
2. A negative covid test from an approved provider within 72 hours of departure

I have not been able to find a comprehensive list of which providers are recognised by Japan. I am particularly interested in whether Randox test certificates are accepted.

It is also not clear what level of validation is performed on the certificates; presumably there are a finite number of approved providers, whose certificates are recognised. If there is no such list of approved providers, what authentication is performed on the test certificates from any provider?

Answer 1

According to IATA:

Published 16.01.2023

1. Passengers must have a negative COVID-19 test taken at most 72 hours before departure from the first embarkation point. Tests accepted are: CLEIA/ECLIA quantitative antigen test, LAMP, NEAR, Next Generation Sequence, PCR, RT-PCR, Smart Amp, TMA or TRC. The test certificate must be in English and specify that the test is based on a "nasopharyngeal swab", or "saliva", or "nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab". A "nasal swab" is also accepted if the test type is LAMP, NEAR, PCR, RT-PCR, Smart Amp, TMA or TRC. Details can be found at https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/covid-19/border_test.html and https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/000905811.pdf .

• This does not apply to:
• passengers with a COVID-19 vaccination certificate

The second link only states the following general requirements for the certificate:

A certificate is valid as long as all of the following items are satisfied.

(1) Name, date of birth
(2) Specimen collected, test method
(3) Result, date and time of specimen collection
(4) Name of medical institution

So as long as whatever test provider you're using can provide a certificate in the requisite format, you're good to go. There's no list of authorized test providers you have to adhere to.

If there is no such list of approved providers, what authentication is performed on the test certificates from any provider?

As of 2023 it's all done solely for the purposes of maintaining a security theater, so there's no authentication whatsoever. No one really cares about the test, they just want to see a piece of paper that satisfies the formal criteria.