waiver#2

2013年は多くの外国人が日本へ訪れました。
No. of foreign visitors to Japan in 2013 exceeds 10 mil target

TOKYO —
The number of foreign tourists to Japan in 2013 exceeded the government target of 10 million, the Justice Ministry and Japan National Tourism Organization said Thursday.

The Justice Ministry said that 11,250,000 foreigners visited Japan in 2013, an increase of 22.7% over 2012 and the first time the number has surpassed 10 million, Fuji TV reported.

The JNTO said the largest numbers of tourists came from the ASEAN countries, due to the weak yen and visa waiver programs, as well as South Korea, Taiwan and China, despite political tensions between Japan and those three countries.

The government has set an ambitious target of 20 million visitors a year by the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/no-of-tourists-to-japan-in-2013-exceed-10-mil-target

記事に出てくる” waiver”は，「放棄，棄権」などの意味を覚えていましたが，『Wisdom英和辞典（第三版）』（三省堂）で調べるとほかにも「免除」という意味がありました。ビザ免除プログラムという制度のようです。ちなみに” visa waiver programs”の頭文字をとった「VWP」という言葉もあります。（Ume）

以前のブログでは"waive"が取り上げられております。
waive - 田邉祐司ゼミ 常時英心：言葉の森から