No. of foreign visitors to Japan hits record high in July

Great. It's nice to see a successful government campaign at least once in while. Would've been even more visitors if there hadn't been the Senkaku kerfuffle.

I was visiting in Shikoku for the first part of July, the rainy season sure is muggy! It was very beautiful though watching the clouds crest the hills and such. Having a weak Yen really helped my wife and I out with costs while we stayed. (nods)

Here is the JNTO's press release from yesterday. Page 3 shows that visitors from Australia, the U.S., the U.K. and Canada for example were also up by 15 - 20 percent for July. http://www.jnto.go.jp/jpn/news/data_info_listing/pdf/pdf/130821_monthly.pdf Need to put an underline between data and info and between info and listing.

This is great news — a significant boost to some of Japan's local economies and a positive influence on the nation's relations with its neighbors.

In Yokohama I notice more and more international visitors every year, particularly from Taiwan and South Korea, and massive cruise ships regularly docked at the Osanbashi pier. The local government here has done a great job over the last two decades of making the harbor area a major tourist destination and attracting more international businesses and residents.

I guess that's one point for Abenomics! Good to hear tourism is increasing.

Korean tourists visiting Japan in record numbers to take advantage of the weaker Yen, despite all the political drama dominating headlines. Japanese tourists to Korea recording big drops, due to the weaker Yen giving them less value for money.

Proves that most ordinary Koreans and Japanese aren't fussed by the political issues, but are only concerned with getting value for money when going on overseas trips. It was disappointing when a drop in Japanese visitors to Korea was reported a while ago, all sorts of political reasons were thrown about.

and thats the biggest advantage of a weaker yen, more people vacation at home, and more visitors coming into Japan=more money staying and coming into the country. oh and those imported goods become more expensive compared to the domestic ones.

Yes, I've noticed confused-looking foreigners walking around with rail maps and scratching their heads everywhere I go these days.

Be interesting to see the average expenditure of our very welcome foreign visitors while they are here. Sure are a passel of them at Sky Tree every day while the puppy and I are on osampo duty!

I was able to find this in Wikipedia:

Chinese travellers are the highest spenders in Japan by country, spending an estimated 196.4 billion yen (US$2.4 billion) in 2011, or almost a quarter of total expenditure by foreign visitors, according to data from the Japan Tourism Agency.[7]

Get ready for thousands of new cancer cases in South Korea in few years. Japan better enjoy July numbers while they can. The word is going around South Korea fast that going to Japan is dangerous, and the South Korean government is deliberately covering up the radiation dangers for the Japanese industries.

Think it more weaker yen than anything. Without arguments with China and Korea and Fukushima this would have been even more visitors.

Chucky, what's the point of deliberately antogonising Japan on this site? I don't think it's achieving much..

@chucky

the South Korean government is deliberately covering up the radiation dangers for the Japanese industries

Care to mention the source?

I wonder what the South Korean vistors buy in Japan. I thought that there was a "don't buy Japanese" campaign...But thank you for coming!

@osakadoug: Ramen and gyoza and not 'real' Japanese food. Like so many other things, they are of Chinese origin.

I agree with AKBFan. This is more from a weaker ¥en than from any "government campaign". Still it is a bit of a silver lining in these days of tougher times (economically).

I'd like to hear percentages on where they visit, the hot spots.

Maybe Osaka_jong;s friend meant cuisine in Japan. That dried ramen is considered Japanese. Chinese ramen is with soft ramen.