The number of foreign visitors passing through Kansai International Airport in 2012 soared 31 percent from a year earlier to a record 3.601 million, due partly to the inauguration of flights by new low-cost carriers, according to the airport operator.
The number was the highest since the airport was opened on a man-made island in Osaka Bay in 1994, New Kansai International Airport Co. said Tuesday in a preliminary report.
The figure also signified a sharp rebound from 2011, when the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that ravaged a wide area of northeastern Japan and the resulting nuclear crisis deterred many foreign travelers.