After tourism reopens, international visitors surge in Japan

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

In October, the international tourist numbers in Japan have seen a major rise to almost 500,000. It’s the first month that the country reopened to foreign visitors fully after maintaining strict measures for more than two years due to COVID-19, with double the volume from September of this year.

On Oct. 11th, Japan concluded world’s some of the strictest border controls, and Fumio Kishida, the honorable Prime Minister, is relying on tourism to boost up the economy, mainly with the yen suspended close to a 32-year low against the dollar.

The foreign tourist numbers, both in terms of tourism and business, in October, increased to almost 498,600, more than double of 206,500 in September and increasing a massive 2,155% from the year before, as per the Japan National Tourism Organization, though in 2019, it was still down 80%.

Almost 1.52 million international visitors have arrived in 2022, a far cry from 2019’s record of 31.8 million in 2019 and the 2020 goal of the government – pegged to the Summer Olympics, that got suspended ultimately of 40 million.

In annual tourist spending, Kishida has said that the government is focusing to draw 5 trillion yen but for the sector, it could be a bridge too far that withered during COVID. Between 2019 and 2021, hotel employment dropped 22%, government data shows, and service workers who managed to find other jobs may be hard to attract them back.

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