The estimated number of foreign visitors to Japan in the first 11 months of 2016 reached 21.99 million, up 22.4 percent from a year earlier, the Japan Tourism Agency said Wednesday.
In November alone, the figure rose 13.8 percent from the year before to 1.88 million, the highest level for the month.
By country, visitors from China ranked at the top at 5.95 million, followed by South Korea at 4.6 million and Taiwan at 3.89 million.
The government expects the full-year total to reach 24 million, but the pace of increase has slowed on the back of China's economic slowdown.
In January, the figure saw a 52 percent rise but the pace of increase stayed below 20 percent from July to November.