The surge in visitors has created various challenges for Japan, including overtourism. - Photo: AFP
TOKYO: A record 21.5 million tourists visited Japan in the first six months of the year, a 21-percent increase year-on-year, official figures showed Wednesday (July 16), despite visitors from Hong Kong dropping by a third over rumours of a quake.
"The number exceeded 20 million in six months, the fastest pace ever," the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) said in a statement.
The figure in June alone jumped 7.6 percent to record 3.4 million, due to "increased demand to coincide with school holidays," it said.
The number was boosted by a jump year-on-year in tourists from China, South Korea, Singapore, India, the United States and Germany.
But the number of travellers from Hong Kong plunged 33.4 percent, with the JNTO citing online rumours warning of a huge quake in Japan.
People from Hong Kong made nearly 2.7 million trips to Japan in 2024.
Although it is impossible to know exactly when earthquakes will hit, fear-inducing predictions have spread widely among the Chinese city's residents.
Some posts cited a Japanese manga comic that predicts a major natural disaster in July 2025 -- based on the author's dream.
Japanese authorities have repeatedly said the rumours are false.
The government has set an ambitious target of almost doubling tourist numbers to 60 million annually by 2030.
Authorities say they want to spread tourists more evenly around the country, and to avoid a bottleneck of visitors eager to snap spring cherry blossoms or vivid autumn colours.
But as in other global tourist magnets like Venice in Italy, there has been a growing pushback from residents in destinations such as the ancient capital of Kyoto. - AFP
