Foreign visitors to Japan hit record high for October

The cumulative number of visitors from abroad in the January-October period totaled 35,547,200.

The annual number of such visitors is likely to exceed 40 million in 2025 for the first time ever.

But future trends in inbound tourism may be affected after the Chinese government urged its citizens not to visit Japan, following Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's recent remark about a potential Taiwan contingency.

With Japan continuing to be a popular travel destination, the number of people traveling for the autumn foliage season and the holidays rose.

For the January-October period, visitors from mainland China made up the biggest group, at some 8.2 million, up 40.7 pct, surpassing those from South Korea. The number of visitors from Hong Kong, whose government has been urging its citizens to be on high alert when traveling to Japan, came to some 2.01 million.

In October alone, the number of visitors from South Korea rose 18.4 pct to 867,200. The number of visitors from mainland China increased 22.8 pct to 715,700, followed by those from Taiwan at 595,900, up 24.4 pct and those from the United States at 335,700, up 20.6 pct.