Published monthly by the Japan National Tourism Organization(JNTO). Updated till the month of March 2019 (published on April 17th, 2019).

Recent data trend

In January 2019, approximately 2.7 million foreigners visited Japan, up by 7.5% year on year (YoY). After more than quadrupling between 2012 to 2017, inbound tourism experienced a significant slowdown in 2018. Inbound tourists grew by 28% on average between 2012 to 2017. In 2018, the growth slowed to a mere 9%. One could argue that there were special factors in 2018 that temporarily sapped the appetite of foreign tourists. A series of natural disasters, including torrential rain in July 2018...

“Number of visitors to Japan” is published by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO). This number includes all foreign visitors to Japan except foreign residents in Japan and crew members.

Tourism from abroad is one of the few promising businesses in Japan. Foreign visitors to Japan doubled in the last decade and reached 10 million people for the first time in 2013, led by an increase of Asian visitors. In 2008, the Japanese government has set up the Japan Tourism Agency and set the initial goal to increase foreign visitors to 20 million in 2020. In 2016, having met the 20 million target, the government has revised up its target to 40 million by 2020 and to 60 million by 2030.

For more detail, see our report on foreign visitors to Japan

For more information, visit the official government page (Japanese only)

Foreign Visitors-Quarterly and Inbound Tourism Spending-Quarterly are published by Japan Tourism Agency as part of their Consumption Trend Survey for Foreigners visiting Japan. The main aim of the survey is to determine the actual consumption status of Inbound travellers from various countries. The methodology involves interviews with researchers at major Air and Sea Ports.

Note: The seasonally adjusted series for Foreign Visitors to Japan-Total, Asia, China, Korea, Taiwan are calculated by us. Method of seasonal adjustment: US Census Bureau X-13 ARIMA seasonal adjustment program was used. Transform Logarithmic transformation. Automatic outliers: Additive, level shift, temporary change and seasonal. ARIMA model: TRAMO Auto.

For more information, visit the official government page

Next release date:  May 22nd, 2019

Foreign Visitors-Quarterly

Inbound Tourism Spending-Quarterly