Slashdot Mirror
Japanese Passport Now World's Most Powerful (cnn.com)
According to the Henley Passport Index, compiled by global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & PartnersCitizens, Japan now has the most powerful passport on the planet. From a report: Having gained visa-free access to Myanmar earlier this month, Japanese citizens can now enjoy visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to a whopping 190 destinations around the world -- knocking Singapore, with 189 destinations, into second place. Germany, which began 2018 in the top spot, is now in third place with 188 destinations, tied with France and South Korea. Uzbekistan lifted visa requirements for French nationals on October 5, having already granted visa-free access to Japanese and Singaporean citizens in early February.
This raises an interesting question: What is the worst passport to have?
I figured it would be North Korea, but nope, it is Afghanistan.
North Korea isn't even in the bottom 10. Eleven countries allow visa free travel to North Koreas, and 35 more issue visas on arrival.
Here's the bottom ten:
Iran
Ethiopia
Lebanon
Sudan
Yemen
Somalia
Syria
Pakistan
Iraq
Afghanistan
So if you want to be at the bottom, you need to be an exporter of terrorists.
So who allows visa free access to Afghans? According to Wikipedia, they are Dominica, Haiti, Micronesia, Saint Vincent, North Cyprus, Cook Islands, and Pitcairn Island.
...as an American citizen, I can be arrested for visiting Cuba, 90 miles away.
It is legal to visit. You just can't spend money there. But enforcement is lax, and nobody really cares.
Bzzt! Wrong. The embargo was in place before the nukes were placed there. Also, this was in response to American nukes in Turkey, right on the Russian border. Stir in a few assassination plots by America and attempted overthrows of the Cuban government, I'd welcome some nukes too.
Russia doesn't have a border with Turkey.
It did in 1961.