South Korea's Foreign Ministry has expressed "extreme regret" over Japan's recent decision to impose a virtual two-week quarantine on visitors entering from South Korea.

In a statement released Friday, the ministry said Tokyo's decision came as the world applauds South Korea's outstanding testing and diagnostic capacity and active efforts to combat the disease, especially as these efforts produce results.

The ministry expressed suspicion that Japan harbored other intentions with its measures, adding the government is weighing all possible measures in response to the tightened restriction while placing top priority on the health and safety of Korean citizens. 

Noting that it had called several times on Japan to think carefully before placing additional travel restrictions on South Korea, the ministry expressed extreme regret over what it called "unreasonable and excessive measures". It added that this was done without sufficient prior discussion with Seoul, and then strongly called on Tokyo to reconsider.

First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Sei-young plans to call in Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Koji Tomita to issue a protest on Friday. 

Kim Jung-han, director-general for Asia and Pacific affairs at Seoul's foreign ministry, met with a senior official from the Japanese Embassy in South Korea on Thursday to express deep regret over the tightened restriction.