People wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus walk around the scrambled intersection at the Shibuya shopping district in Tokyo Saturday, Dec. 26, 2020. (Photo: AP)

Japan has decided to ban all new entries of foreign nationals from December 28 to the end of January following the detection of a new variant of the coronavirus in arrivals from Britain, Japanese media reported on Saturday.

Japan reported 3,877 new cases of the coronavirus as of 8:00 p.m. local time on Saturday, taking the overall total of confirmed to 219,142, including 712 from a cruise ship, said NHK.