Melo Villareal
Henley Passport Index Result Is Out and Japan Holds the Top Spot
The ranking of the 2018 Henley Passport Index has come out and Japan beats Singapore at the most coveted spot after getting a visa-free access to Myanmar at the beginning of the month. As of this writing, Japan has visa-free access and/or visa-on-arrival to 190 destinations against Singapore’s 189 destinations.
Japanese Passport Lands on the Top Spot While Germany Falls One Spot from Second Place Photo by Francesca Tirico on Unsplash
The two countries have been in intense competition since February this year where they were both placed on the top spot having been approved for visa-exemption from Uzbekistan. This climb for the two countries resulted to Germany being dropped down to second place in the first quarter. That was the first time that Germany moved down to second place since 2014.
Germany is now one spot lower sharing the third spot with South Korea and France. France has gained visa-free access to Uzbekistan paving way for a one spot jump to 3rd place from 4th last October 1. South Korea also moved to the third spot after getting visa-free access to Myanmar. All the three countries have a score of 188. On the other hand, Afghanistan and Iraq are on the 106th spot, the bottom of the index for having gained only 30 visa-free destinations.
Down to 5th spot from 4th are the US and the UK with 186 destinations. Both the countries didn’t have new visa-free entries since 2018. It will be hard for the US and the UK to get to the spot again compared to countries like Japan, Singapore and South Korea. Incidentally, both the US and the UK held the number one spot in 2015.
Russia falls from 46th spot to 47th despite having gained visa-free access to Taiwan in September due to the developments of other countries. China dropped two spots at 71st though it gained visa-free access to St. Lucia and Myanmar.
The biggest jump in recent years is obtained by UAE which used to be in the 62nd spot in 2006 and is now in the 21st spot. It’s the country in the Middle Eastern part of the world that has the number 1 passport.
Group Chairman of Henley & Partners, Dr. Christian H. Kälin assessed that the Henley Passport Index gets its data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). This list is a vital in determining the importance of the world’s passports as well as the upshot of all the countries involved in working together. An example of this is China and UAE which are two of the highest climbers this year.
Also Read: Japan has the most powerful passport in the world, Singapore now ranked second
