Japanese, Singaporeans now hold the most powerful passport in the world

Image: angeloNZ / IStock.com via AFP Relaxnews

Japan and Singapore have overtaken Germany to share the most powerful passport title in the world.

In the latest edition of the Henley Passport Index, Asian countries have hit Germany back to second place, to benefit from visa-free access to as many countries, 189.

The index is updated in real time and ranks the world's passports according to the number of destinations that holders can access without applying for a visa. The ranking uses data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Overall, nationals of member countries of the European Union have not improved their overall access since last year, mainly because their incoming policies are so restrictive, said Florian Trauner. Professor at the Institute of European Studies of the Free University of Brussels

"The current political climate in the EU does not favor more liberal admission policies" and "As a result of the vote on Brexit, the UK has tried to. Despite the controversial travel bans of US President Donald Trump, the experts said that the status of the US passport would probably remain unchanged, as weak economies can not afford to impose a stricter immigration regime on European and non-European citizens to exclude larger countries that send large flows of tourists.

And while Russia has waived the requirements of visa for the World Cup this year, he has not been able to win reciprocal access to the new destinations, adds the report, only earn a place on the index at the 46th position. [19659003ThePhilippinescurrentlyoccupies72ndpositionwithvisa-freeaccessto66destinationsandranks7thoutof11countriesinSoutheastAsialistThePhilippineslosttwoplacesintheMayupdateasthecountrywasin70thplace

Here is the classification of countries:

1. Japan, Singapore
2. Germany
3. Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Sweden, Spain, South Korea
4. Norway, United Kingdom, Austria, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, United States
5. Belgium, Switzerland, Ireland, Canada
6. Australia, Greece
7. New Zealand, Czech Republic, Malta
8. Iceland
9. Hungary, Slovenia , Malaysia
10. Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania
JB

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