Overseas visitors hit record high for August at 2.9 million

The estimated number of overseas visitors to Japan rose 36.0% from a year before to 2,933,000 in August, a record high for the month, the Japan National Tourism Organization said Wednesday.
The figure was up 16.4% from the same month in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The monthly number hit a record high for each month for the seventh straight month, but it fell below 3 million for the first time in six months, partly because of flight cancellations due to a typhoon.
In the first eight months of this year, the number of visitors from abroad topped 24 million. At a news conference on the day, Japan Tourism Agency commissioner Naoya Haraikawa said the annual number is expected to reach a new high. “The current trend will continue unless any big accident happens,” he said.
By country or region, the number of visitors from mainland China doubled to 745,800 in August, thanks to a relaxation of border controls and an increase in the number of flights.
There were 612,100 visitors from South Korea, up 7.6%, 564,300 from Taiwan, up 42.4%, 246,600 from Hong Kong, up 19.6%, and 174,000 from the United States, up 25.8%. Italy and Spain their highest monthly numbers of visitors to Japan.
Meanwhile, the number of Japanese people who went abroad in August was 1,437,100, up 19.7% from a year before but down 31.9% from August 2019. The number has been relatively slow to rebound due to the yen’s weakness and inflation.