Record high 17.77 million tourists visited Japan in 1st half of 2024

In this file photo, foreign tourists are seen in Osaka City in May. The amount spent by tourists in Japan also hit a record high of ¥3.9 trillion during the same period. Photo THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN

TOKYO – The number of foreign visitors to Japan from January to June reached a record high of 17,777,200 for the first half of the year, the Japan National Tourism Organisation said recently.

The amount spent by tourists also hit a record high of ¥3.9 trillion (US$ 25 trillion ) during the same period.

The record numbers are seen against a backdrop of a sense that a trip to Japan is not as expensive due to the depreciation of the yen.

Most of the visitors to Japan were from South Korea, followed by China, Taiwan and the United States. Since February, the number of visitors for each month has exceeded that of the same month in 2019, when the previous record was set before the coronavirus pandemic. June saw a record number of visitors of 3,135,600 in a single month.

The number of visitors this year might reach 35 million, and the amount spent by tourists might hit ¥8 trillion. The government has set goals of 60 million visitors and ¥15 trillion by 2030.

The government has compiled measures to make sure the country is better prepared to receive visitors with the aim of further increasing the number of tourists, at a meeting of Ministerial Council on the Promotion of Japan as a Tourism-Oriented Country on Friday.

In response to foreign airlines canceling plans for new flights due to a fuel shortage, the government plans to increase production at refineries and boost imports to secure fuel.

For measures to combat overtourism, the government decided to add six areas, including Naha and Otsuki, Yamanashi Prefecture, to its list of places where it will provide financial support. The Yomiuri Shimbun/ANN