The estimated number of foreign visitors to Japan in October surged 17.6% from a year earlier to 3,896,300, marking a record high for the month, the Japan National Tourism Organization said Tuesday.

The cumulative number of visitors from abroad between January and October totaled 35,547,200. The annual number of visitors to Japan is highly likely to exceed 40 million for the first time ever in 2025.

Of the cumulative figure for the first 10 months of this year, the number of visitors from mainland China was the largest, at about 8.2 million, up 40.7% year on year and accounting for some 20% of the total.

Still, future trends regarding Chinese visitors are uncertain after the Chinese government urged the country’s citizens to refrain from visiting Japan, following Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remark about a potential Taiwan contingency.

On the possible impact of the Chinese government’s call, Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Shigeki Murata said at a news conference, “I prefer not to make any premature statements.”

The Japanese government will continue its promotion activities to attract Chinese visitors, Murata said, adding, “We’ll make necessary efforts while assessing various factors.”

The increase in visitors to Japan in October was partly due to the country’s autumn foliage season.

The number of visitors from South Korea rose 18.4% to 867,200 in the latest reporting month, the largest by country or region. Visitors from mainland China increased 22.8% to 715,700, followed by those from Taiwan, at 595,900, up 24.4%, and those from the U.S., at 335,700, up 20.6%.

For the January-October period, the number of South Korean visitors came to about 7.6 million, up 6.4% from a year before and the second largest after mainland China. Taiwan ranked third, with some 5.6 million people visiting Japan from the self-governing island.

Meanwhile, the estimated number of Japanese nationals who traveled abroad in October rose 8.3% to 1,243,600.