Japan's Immigration Bureau recently announced that the number of foreign visitors entering Japan through airports and ports in 2024 will be 36.
The number was 780,000, up 18% from the previous record of 31.19 million in 2019, and 2.2 times higher than the 16.45 million foreign visitors who visited South Korea last year.
Last year, the number of foreign visitors to Japan for the first time, excluding re-entry, was 34.02 million, accounting for more than 98% of the total number of foreign visitors.
This shows that Japan's inbound market is still booming. Of the foreigners who entered the country for the first time last year, 33.36 million people (91%) were there for the purpose of sightseeing, travel, or business trips.
It was found that approximately 170,000 foreigners (0.5%) entered Japan on student visas for the purpose of studying abroad, such as going to school or taking language courses, and 10,000 foreigners (1.2%) entered Japan on technical internship visas.
The total number of people entering Japan on the Special Technical Worker Visa, which was introduced in 2019 to fill the labor shortage in industrial fields with foreign workers, was 150,000 (0.4%).
By country, South Korea had the most with 8.63 million visitors, up 27% from 6.81 million in 2023. This was followed by Taiwan with 5.69 million visitors and 5.49 million visitors.
China followed with 2.67 million visitors and the United States with 2.67 million. In terms of the increase by country, China, which saw 2 million visitors in 2023, saw a significant increase to 5.49 million last year, showing the steepest increase of 175%.
Taiwan also saw a 40% increase compared to 2023, when 4.07 million people visited, a larger increase than South Korea. More foreigners than ever before visited Japan, and visitors' spending in Japan was also the highest on record.
According to preliminary figures recently released by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), tourists visiting Japan in 2024 are expected to spend 8.14 trillion yen on accommodation, shopping and other activities, the highest figure ever recorded.
The record was 5.31 trillion yen in 2023.
2025/01/28 07:04 KST
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