Koreans Truly Ranked 1st in Traveling to Japan... "Foreigners Who Spent 74.9 Trillion Won and Left"

Record High Number of Foreign Visitors to Japan This Year

Japan EPA Yonhap News

The number of foreign visitors to Japan from January to November this year has already surpassed the annual record high.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization on the 18th, the number of foreign visitors to Japan up to November this year was 33.38 million. The previous record was 31.88 million in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, which has now been exceeded.

Korean visitors accounted for 7.95 million (23.8%), the largest share among foreign visitors. They were followed by China (6.38 million), Taiwan (5.55 million), the United States (2.49 million), and Hong Kong (2.4 million). In 2019, the number of Chinese visitors was about twice that of Koreans, but this year Korea has overtaken China.

The Japan National Tourism Organization explained, "Due to economic slowdown, flights between China and Japan remain at 70% of pre-pandemic levels, but relations between Korea and Japan are good, so the number of Korean visitors up to November this year has already set a record high."

Meanwhile, the number of foreign visitors to Japan in November alone was 3.19 million, a 30.6% increase compared to the same month last year. In July, then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida predicted at the Tourism Nation Promotion Ministerial Meeting that "the number of foreign visitors to Japan this year will reach 35 million, and foreign visitor consumption in Japan will be about 8 trillion yen (approximately 74.9 trillion won), both setting new records."