Top 3 asian countries in the world’s most powerful passports

According to the latest list by residence and citizenship consultancy Henley Partners (based in the UK), Japan continues to be the most powerful passporting country in the world. The people of cherry blossom country can go to 193 countries without applying for a visa.

The second place belongs to another Asian country, Singapore. The number of visa-free countries for Singapore passport owners is up to 192. The remaining positions in the top 5 went to Germany, South Korea (same 191) and Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain (190). Ranked 5th are Austria and Denmark with 189 visa-free destinations

Afghanistan ranks bottom of the list of power passports with 26 destinations, followed by Iraq (28) and Syria (29).

Japan tops the list of powerful passports. Photo: Nikkei Asia.

“The disparity in freedom of travel is at its largest level since the arrival of the power passport index in 2006. Japanese passport users can reach more than 167 countries and territories than Afghan citizens,” said Henley Partners representative.

In addition, the company also pointed to China and the UAE as the two countries with the biggest spikes in the rankings. Over the past 10 years, China has risen 22 places, from 90th to 68th. The number of visa-exempt countries for Chinese citizens increased from 40 to 77.

The UAE does even better than that. The country’s passport jumped from 65th to 15th place in the latest rankings. A total of 174 countries exempt visa for people who own UAE passports.

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the ban on international visitors by a third of the world has made passports no longer as useful as they were before the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Christian H. Kaelin, President of Henley Partners and creator of the passport index, said: “The latest rankings show that economic recovery and development depend on global mobility, including individual freedom of movement.

No one expected the move to return to pre-pandemic times soon. However, we can expect more than we did a few months ago.”