What’s the travel document that opens more doors around the world than any other? It’s a Japanese passport.
The Henley Passport Index, which periodically measures the world’s most travel-friendly passports, has released its first report of the new decade.
Japan is now top of the leaderboard, offering visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to an incredible 191 destinations around the world.
Asia dominates the top of the list, with Singapore in second place (with a score of 190) and South Korea tying with Germany in third place (with a score of 189). European countries have a strong showing in the rest of the top ten, with Finland and Spain at No.4, Spain, Luxembourg and Denmark coming fifth, and Sweden and France sitting at No. 6.
The US and the UK, meanwhile, continue to slide down the rankings. As we step into the 2020s, they hold joint eighth place — a far cry from the number one spot they jointly held five years ago, in 2015.
A Japanese passport holder can access 165 more destinations than a holder of the world’s weakest passport, that of Afghanistan, which offers visa-free/visa-on-arrival access to just 26 destinations.
As for passports southeast European and western Balkan nations, EU members Slovenia (11thplace) and Croatia (20thplace), followed by Serbia (39thplace), Montenegro (46thplace), North Macedonia (47thplace), and Bosnia-Herzegovina (52ndplace).
