Japan breaks annual visitor record in just 11 months
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Japan breaks annual visitor record in just 11 months

Weak yen a big factor behind 33.4 million arrivals as of Nov 30

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Foreign tourists play Pokemon Go during a four-day international festival held for fans of the popular smartphone game in Sendai in northeastern Japan in May this year. (Photo: Kyodo)
Foreign tourists play Pokemon Go during a four-day international festival held for fans of the popular smartphone game in Sendai in northeastern Japan in May this year. (Photo: Kyodo)

TOKYO - Japan has set a new annual record for foreign visitor arrivals with one month to spare, official data showed on Wednesday, as the weak yen helped propel the country’s tourism boom.

In November 3.19 million foreign visitors arrived in the country for business and leisure, data from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) showed, bringing the total for 2024 so far to 33.4 million.

That eclipsed the previous full-year record of 31.9 million set in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic shut global borders.

The arrivals in November were down slightly from the 3.31 million visitors seen in October, the most for any month on record.

Travellers spent 5.86 trillion yen ($37.7 billion) in Japan through the end of September,  according to the latest available figures. That eclipsed the 5.3 trillion yen they spent in all of 2023, which was a record for any 12-month period.

Tourism spending, classified as an export in national accounts, is poised to become Japan’s second-biggest export earner after automobiles and ahead of electronic components, the JNTO said last month.

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