JAPAN 2025 FOREIGN VISITORS AT RECORD 42.7 MILLION, SPENDING AT ALL-TIME HIGH

TOKYO, Jan 20 (Bernama-Kyodo) -- Foreign visitors to Japan reached a record estimated 42.7 million in 2025, the government said Tuesday, with their spending also at a new all-time high of 9.5 trillion yen (US$60.1 billion), thanks to a weaker yen and increased flights to Japan.

The preliminary figures also showed, however, a 45 percent drop in Chinese tourists in the month of December from a year prior to 330,000, Kyodo News reported tourism minister Yasushi Kaneko told a press conference.

The fall came as an ongoing row between Japan and China appears likely to weigh on inbound travel trends in 2026.

The decline in Chinese visitors was the first fall since January 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism said, adding the government is monitoring the situation around Chinese visitors.

Overall visitors surpassed 40 million for the first time, and the estimated total was around 6 million people higher than for 2024.

Kaneko said Japan will "engage in strategic Japan tourism promotion" amid a diversifying inbound market, highlighted by rising arrivals from Australia, Europe and the United States.

Relations between Tokyo and Beijing have soured since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks in early November on a Taiwan contingency infuriated China, according to Kyodo.

The fallout has seen economic measures from China, including urging its people to refrain from visiting Japan, and some airlines reduced flights on Japan-China routes.

While the Japanese government has set a target of attracting 60 million foreign visitors a year by 2030, some popular sightseeing destinations are facing problems such as overcrowding and misbehavior by some tourists.

To address challenges posed by the surge in inbound tourism, Japan will triple the international tourist tax, collected from all travelers leaving Japan, to 3,000 yen from July, it added.

-- BERNAMA-KYODO