When you go abroad, you cannot enter the country without a visa, except if you have a visa exemption. To activate the economy, APEC, which was founded in 1989, has studied the possibility of creating a system so that the citizens of the 21 participating countries could travel smoothly within the region. The participating countries issue a card which enables its holder to obtain a visa automatically. With this card and passport they can easily enter the relevant countries.

At present, the 9 countries and regions that are using this system are: Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Chile, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan. In future all of the participating countries will join. The duration of stay in the participating areas is from 2 to 3 months. This is considered to be enough for normal business. Foreign ABTC card holders are allowed to enter Japan without a visa from April 1, 2003.

In Japan the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issues this card for Japanese. For inquiries, fax 03-6402-2221.