The number of foreign visitors to Japan totaled 845,000 in July, the second-highest monthly total on record and a 50.5 percent increase from a year earlier, the government's tourism promotion agency said Friday.

The latest figure reflects a continued recovery in tourism after the plunge following the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and start of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, but officials are concerned the recent territorial rows with China and South Korea could again spark a drop-off.

"I hope ties with South Korea, as well as with China, do not get any worse," said Norifumi Ide, head of the Japan Tourism Agency.