Over The Past 4 Months, 100,000 More Tourists Have Come To Japan, Mostly From Vietnam

JAKARTA - The number of foreign tourists coming to Japan in July exceeded 100,000. And it was the fourth consecutive month after the easing of COVID-19 border control measures.

Quoted from Japan Today, Thursday, August 18, the number of tourists who came was 144,500 last month, 2.8 times higher than in July 2021.

But it represented a 95.2 percent drop from the same month in the pre-pandemic year 2019, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.

While Japan reopened its doors for small-scale tours in June, the number of foreign tourists to the country remained low at 7,903 the following month.

It is believed the complicated procedures required to visit the country, such as obtaining negative coronavirus tests and visas, are part of the reason for the low number of tourists.

The number of people who have applied for entry to Japan for tourism purposes for the period August 12-31 is 7,412, the organization said.

The number of travel applications for September and October and beyond stood at 4,730 and 2,810, respectively, with the majority from South Korea.

By country, the largest number of total foreign arrivals to Japan in July were from Vietnam at 22,700, South Korea at 20,400, and China at 14,800, with the most likely coming as technical interns, entrepreneurs, or international students.

Meanwhile, the number of Japanese who went abroad in July was 277,900, a 6.4-fold increase compared to the same month in 2021. This number was down 83.3 percent from the same month in 2019.