YANGON (Kyodo) Japanese tourists who visited Myanmar in the first nine months of 2008 declined 68 percent compared with the same period in 2007, official figures showed Thursday.
Japanese nationals who arrived in the country on tourist visas from January to September last year numbered 2,960, compared with 9,319 for the same period in 2007, according to figures from Myanmar's National Planning Ministry.
During the period, 188,931 international tourists visited the country, down 25 percent on the previous year.
Tourism suffered due to the military crackdown on monk-led antijunta protests in September 2007, during which Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai was killed by soldiers, and Cyclone Nargis, which hit in May 2008, leaving more than 130,000 people dead or missing.