2012 foreign tourist target: 9 million

Tourism minister Takeshi Maeda said Tuesday that the government aims to attract more than 9 million foreign visitors in 2012, exceeding the past record of 8.61 million set in 2010.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, the estimated number of foreign visitors in 2011 dropped 27.8 percent from a year earlier to 6.22 million due to the March 11 disasters and the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

The rate of decline in December alone was a smaller 11.7 percent that a year before, according to the organization, an external body of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

The government plans to launch tourism promotion campaigns in South Korea and China while trying to host more international conferences in Japan.