Japan's travel surplus in fiscal 2020 plunged 89.2% from the previous year, as the number of inbound visitors nosedived due to strict international travel restrictions by nations in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
The surplus of the travel balance, showing the amount of money foreign tourists spend in Japan versus Japanese spending abroad, shrank to ¥264.5 billion ($2.4 billion), marking the first fall since the balance turned black in fiscal 2014, according to the ministry's preliminary report.
Japan's annual travel balance had continued to improve since fiscal 2004 as tourists from overseas increased almost every year, and the surplus of ¥2.46 trillion in fiscal 2019 through March last year was the largest since comparable data became available in fiscal 1996.