Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to weaken the yen is echoing through the duty-free shops and tourist sites of South Korea, where Japanese visitors spent about $4.5 billion last year.
Japanese visits to South Korea have fallen five straight months to the lowest in two years in January, according to the Korea Tourism Organization. Korean Air Lines Co. passenger traffic between the two countries fell 9 percent last quarter from a year earlier, the biggest drop since the second quarter of 2011, after Japan was struck by its most powerful recorded earthquake.
The 13 percent decline in the yen against the won since the start of December has prompted Japanese tourists, who account for the biggest portion of foreigners traveling to South Korea, to cut spending.