Record 16.6 million foreigners visited Japan in 1st half of 2019

Thursday, July 18, 2019

A record 16.63 million foreigners visited Japan in the first six months of 2019. It marked a 4.6 per cent rise compared to previous year for the same period. Japan’s relaxed visa regulations for Chinese and other nationals helped to increase the number of foreigners.

Spending by foreign visitors in the period through June increased 8.3 per cent from a year earlier to 2.43 trillion yen (U.S. dollars 22 billion) – an all-time high as per the Japan Tourism Agency.

The largest number of visitors came from China at 4.53 million, which marked a rise of 11.7 per cent. The easing of visa requirements for individual travelers from January and an increase in flight services helped to boost the arrivals.

Despite Japan’s continuing tourism promotion efforts ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, the increase in the number of visitors from overseas slowed as against the 15.6 per cent rise recorded in the first half of 2018.

Increasingly souring ties between Japan and South Korea over technology export controls and wartime compensation issues may also cast a shadow over Japan’s tourism industry.

Visitors from China spent the highest amount at 895.0 billion yen, followed by visitors from Taiwan at 298.1 billion yen and visitors from South Korea at 276.2 billion yen.

The number of South Korean visitors in the January-June period ranked second after China but fell 3.8 percent to around 3.86 million, the first drop in five years.

The number of visitors from Taiwan was the third largest at around 2.48 million, which was a drop from 1.0 per cent.

The government has set a target of attracting 40 million foreign visitors annually and increasing their spending to 8 trillion yen next year when Japan hosts the games.

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