Japan Sees Record 3 Million Tourist Arrivals in March
Japan welcomed a record number of foreign visitors during March 2024, according to government data.
In that month, more than 3.08 million tourists arrived in the country. It's the first time that the number of visitors has been higher than 3 million in one month.
It was also an increase of almost 70% compared to the number of arrivals in March 2023.
In 2023, the country had only recently reopened to tourists after the coronavirus pandemic. But the 2024 figure is also an 11.6% increase on the figure from March 2019, before the pandemic.
Kyodo News said visitors may have been encouraged to travel to Japan this spring to see the famous cherry blossoms, while it was also the time of Easter holidays in countries like the US and the Philippines.
In fact, 290,000 US tourists arrived in Japan during March. That's more than ever before.
More than 663,000 visitors came from South Korea, along with 484,000 from Taiwan and 452,000 from China.
People visited from places like Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico and Vietnam in bigger numbers than ever.
The weak yen has also made Japan a good place to spend money.
According to the Japan Tourist Agency, foreign visitors spent 1.75 trillion yen — about $11.3 billion — between January and March this year.
That's another new record, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hopes to see more records broken this year.
However, some residents are unhappy about the increase in tourist arrivals in their areas.
