Number of Chinese visitors to Japan soars 86% in May

TOKYO —

The number of visitors to Japan from China has continued increasing sharply and is likely to mark a new high this year, according to data released by the government.

Around 110,000 Chinese visited Japan for business or tourism purposes in May, up 86% from a year earlier, raising the number of visitors in the first five months of this year by 36% to about 600,000, the Japan National Tourism Organization said in a preliminary report.

As Japan will relax visa conditions for individual Chinese tourists from next month, the number of visitors from China is expected to reach an all-time high of 1.5 million this year, topping the current record of 1.01 million set in 2009, according to Japanese tourism industry officials.

The number of Chinese visitors, which totaled around 350,000 in 2000, has continued increasing since Japan began accepting group tours from China in September the same year, topping 1 million in 2008, due to rising incomes in China.

The number of tourists who visited Japan from other Asian countries, such as India, Singapore and Thailand, in the January-May period also increased by double digits, the government agency said.

While foreign visitors in the five-month period totaled approximately 3.5 million, Chinese accounted for 17%, Americans 8% and Britons 2%.
==Kyodo

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