No. of visitors to Japan fewer than year before for 13 consecutive months

Tuesday 29th September, 05:32 AM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 28 Total Comments Show All

Beelzebub at 12:31 PM JST - 29th September

I have several friends who will be visiting us in the near future on their first trip to Japan. I will of course be interested in hearing their initial impressions. North Americans (for example) tend to remark about how well dressed and groomed the people are, and the virtual lack of old, rusting cars with dented mudguards on the streets. Southeast Asians tend to be impressed by the clean streets, potable tap water, smooth flow of vehicular traffic and generally stoical behaviour of people on mass transport. I would say to anyone coming to this part of the world for the first time that both Japan and China are great destinations, and both should be visited if for no other reason than to appreciate the huge contrasts.
4thEstateDotCom at 12:40 PM JST - 29th September

Japan is a great destination, especially after just about anywhere else in Asia. I am always glad to get back here.
joetheplumber at 12:51 PM JST - 29th September

If Japan was such a great destination, then why are the number of visitors dropping? One would think numbers should be soaring. All one sees here is temples and shrines and onsen. I mean they are beautiful and warrant viewing, but look at some of the negatives.
kirakira25 at 12:53 PM JST - 29th September

I think it should also be considered that people arent going ANYWHERE this year, not just Japan. The UK had record numbers of people holidaying domestically this year because of the recession. Id be interested to know if Japanese international travel is up or down on last year - if as I suspect many Japanese are also holidaying at home the tourist spend numbers will be tempered somewhat, because ultimately that is what this is all about.
TSRnow at 01:24 PM JST - 29th September

Id be interested to know if Japanese international travel is up or down on last year -

I would like to know too. Usually, when the yen is this high, people will try to get out of Japan. Maybe not, this time. I hear people are actually trying to get around as cheap as possible like using the highways benefiting from the 1,000 yen week-end rate. I saw on TV that some are turning their vans into make-believe camping cars. It looked really cramped. Wow, what a way to spend your holiday!

If only someone with power would say the yen is high enough, foreign tourists may start coming back again even in this recession.
S7ro9kGm3aQ at 03:03 PM JST - 29th September

Japan is the new China.
fishy at 03:27 PM JST - 29th September

kirakira25 - you are probably right.. people aren't goint anywhere this year, not just Japan. Bad economy has hit many of us pretty hard in many countries, and people are waiting for the economy to recover to go abroad!

Japan might not be a great place to visit, but it's not THAT bad, either.
rajakumar at 06:22 PM JST - 29th September

Push the yen value down , by 50 percent,you will get 50 percent more visitors due to lower costs of services,transport,hotels and food in Japan. There will be less troubled rivers for Japan.
Foxie at 10:30 PM JST - 29th September

It isn't just Japan. Tourists number dropped by 10% this summer in Greece and they have to live of them. My Australian friend visited me and all she did was complaining how expensive everything was due to the strong Yen.
usaexpat at 11:43 PM JST - 29th September

Because the world is in recession and the yen is strong.
JohnBecker at 02:21 AM JST - 30th September

As an American who has visited Japan on two separate occasions (in 2005 and 2007, 2 and 3 weeks, respectively), I can say that Japan was a wonderful country to visit. Only very rarely was communication a problem, getting around is easy, the people I interacted with were fantastic, and staying on a budget isn't impossible.

I'm sure things are different if you actually live in Japan. But that's not the point of this article. Tourism is, and Japan is fine for tourism.

usaexpat has it right - worldwide recession and a strong currency will curtail international tourism in any country. If things settle down on the economic front and the yen gets back to around 100 - 110 to the dollar (and makes similar moves against the Euro and other currencies), things will get back to normal in short order.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for another visit next year.
nevarezga at 03:48 AM JST - 30th September

Yes, the price of the Yen is what keeps me from visiting Japan again. Last year I went to Japan in July, it was more or less 10 Yens per 1 Mexican Peso, so basically 1000 JPY = 100 MXP = 10 USD very easy conversion, and everything was very cheap.

This year I went in june again but it was soooo expensive, about 68 MPX per 1000 JPY , 30% more expensive than last year. So it is definitely is a decision factor, the only good thing about the crisis was that the plane tickets were cheap.
mrhog123 at 03:25 PM JST - 30th September

I would love to visit Hokkaido. However we need the yen to be about 110/American Dollar. I have been treated very well and with my poor Japanese language skills I have traveled all over Japan with little trouble.
bdiego at 11:08 AM JST - 2nd October

Exactly, surprising how anyone would think this is limited to just Japan. Do you even remember what happened 13 months ago?
mushroomcloud at 11:36 AM JST - 2nd October

Nothing to see there, and too expensive.