The estimated number of foreign visitors to the nation's national parks increased to a new record of 6 million last year, with a park in Kumamoto Prefecture, which was hit by natural disasters in 2016, having enjoyed a boost, the Environment Ministry has announced.
The figure, released Monday, was up by 10 percent from 2016, according to the ministry, which is targeting 10 million annual visitors before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
Of the 34 national parks in Japan, Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park — a gigantic 121,695-hectare expanse of nature that includes portions of western Tokyo as well as Kanagawa, Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures — saw the highest number of foreign visitors with 2.58 million. It was followed by 926,000 visitors to Aso-Kuju National Park straddling Kumamoto and Oita prefectures, and 901,000 visitors to Shikotsu-Toya National Park in Hokkaido, which is easily accessible from New Chitose Airport.