Number of foreign visitors to Japan rises 7.5% to 2.69 mil in January

Ganbare Japan!Today 09:06 am JST

Amazing boom! Around 85 percent of visitors to Japan are from Asian region. So much for those who say Japan has a bad image in Asia, Japan "needs to apologize", "pay compensation" etc etc. They love Japan!

Ganbare - I was actually thinking the opposite. With all the negative media (incl sns) raps coming out of Japan against Koreans & Chinese, you'd think they would never want to come here.

But, as Yubaru said - ordinary folks get along fine.

It's the psycho-nationalists - politicians & media - that have the Big voice, and thankfully the good common people can see the bs in their rhetoric.

@ossan. We started sleeping in the car. It warm for 3 people...

Ossan* the price of progress?

Huh? Please explain how mass-tourism is progress.

Ossan* the price of progress?

This is all good for the people, both Japanese and foreign visitors. But I'm annoyed that every place I want to stay is all booked. lol

Japan is located most northern among Asian countries and for them, snow may be new experience. Recently I drove to Hirosaki in Aomori prefecture and I asked people walking about the road and they did not understand Japanese. They were tourists from other parts of Asia. It was a surprise for me. For people living snowy areas, their living is troubled a lot by snow and they call it "setsugai" snow harms.

Those figures are just incredible. The floodgates are well and truly open. Like it or not.

Turn it into cold hard cash Japan. Professionalism, intergrity and smarts. Even if those coming aren’t quite your cup of tea.

Politicians, make sure local communities feel that they are all sharing the fruits of this well needed tourism boom and goldmine. Get the attitudes on the ground right and it will be a non stop and continuous win win.

Irashyaaaaaaiiiii!

People are kind and the streets are clean in Japan. Above all, the prices of food, drink and accommodation are reasonable. There are low-cost airlines to Japan. These factors contribute to the steady increase of tourists in Japan.

This is why I love to travel back to Japan. I just hope Japan doesn't sell its soul in the process. Somedays I hear more Chinese spoken then Japanese.

Asians tend to hate the Japanese government and leaders, not Japanese people.

Amazing boom! Around 85 percent of visitors to Japan are from Asian region. So much for those who say Japan has a bad image in Asia, Japan "needs to apologize", "pay compensation" etc etc. They love Japan!

Above all, the prices of food, drink and accommodation are reasonable.

Personally speaking, this is very true, if you manage to stay out of Tokyo!

People are kind and the streets are clean in Japan. Above all, the prices of food, drink and accommodation are reasonable. There are low-cost airlines to Japan. These factors contribute to the steady increase of tourists in Japan.

Interesting, this shows that Japan and Japanese still hold sway among Chinese and South Koreans, and in a positive way despite the negative media and the anti-Japan nationalists. If Japan was so bad and 'xenophobic,' these people wouldn't want to visit Japan, but visit they do, and in record numbers.

Good for these open minded folk.

And I see many pictures of them on Instagram and FB. They'd promoted much Japan. Japan should thanks the visitors lol. Because of them thousand of tourist came to Japan.

By country and region, visitors from South Korea were the most numerous at 779,400, down 3 percent from a year earlier, followed by those from China at 754,400, up 19.3 percent, Taiwan at 387,500, up 10.5 percent, and Hong Kong at 154,300, down 3.9 percent, according to the data released by the Japan Tourism Agency

To all those that think that there are so many "problems" between SK, China and Japan, don't be fooled by the media, the proof is here that the majority of the troubles are over exaggerated and over hyped by the media looking to justify their own positions!

Koreans, Chinese and Japanese "average" folk get along just fine!