By YOKO MASUDA/ Staff Writer
April 18, 2024 at 14:54 JST
Foreign tourists cross the Togetsukyo bridge in the Arashiyama district of Kyoto. (Yoshiaki Arai)
Driven by cherry blossom season and the weak yen, the number of monthly visitors to Japan in March topped 3 million for the first time ever, according to government statistics.
The number of inbound tourists reached 3,081,600 in March, the highest monthly figure since record-keeping began in 1964, according to a report released by the Japan National Tourism Organization on April 17.
That’s up 11.6 percent from the number of visitors in the same month in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
South Korean tourists made up the largest group, followed by those from Taiwan and China. The Easter holiday period, which started in late March this year, also helped boost visitor numbers.
Spending by visitors to Japan in the first quarter of this year totaled 1.7505 trillion yen ($11.36 billion), the highest quarterly figure ever recorded.
The average spending per person was 208,760 yen, up 41.6 percent from the same period in 2019.
With the yen offering greater value to foreign visitors, tourists spent more, particularly on shopping and accommodation.
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