Last month, South Koreans topped the list of foreigners to visit Japan the most.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on February 20th that the Japan National Tourism Organization announced that Koreans took up the largest proportion among the 2,788,000 foreign visitors to Japan last month.
The number of foreign visitors to Japan was 7.1% higher than in February 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, setting a record for the highest number of visitors ever in a single month. Compared to February of last year, there was an 89% increase, and monthly visitors to Japan surpassed 2 million for nine consecutive months.
The increase in visitors can be attributed to more East Asian tourists, including those from Korea and China, and Southeast Asia, such as Singapore, visiting Japan during the Lunar New Year holidays.
By country and region, Korea had the most visitors, with 818,500, a 14.3% increase from February 2019. Taiwan ranked second, with 502,200, a 25.6% increase within the same period.
With 459,400 visitors, China showed a 36.5% decrease from February 2019 and ranked third after Taiwan. The Chinese Lunar New Year holiday lasted eight days, from February 10th to 17th.
The media reported, “While Chinese visitors made up about one-third of the total visitors to Japan in 2019, their proportion has now fallen to less than 20%.”
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