The number of tourists and other visitors arriving from overseas reached 1,817,100 in August, up 63.8 percent from the same month last year. There was a surge in the number of vacationers from China, government data showed Wednesday.
A record 12.88 million foreigners are estimated to have visited Japan in the year through August, up 49.1 percent from the same period last year and a significant advance on the goal of 20 million the government wants to achieve by 2020, the year Tokyo hosts the Olympics.
The Japan National Tourism Organization attributed the continued increase in foreign visitors to a weaker yen, an expansion in the number of international flights and the availability of duty-free, and relaxations in visa requirements for some nationalities.