The number of foreign visitors to Japan soared 28.5 percent in April year-on-year to a record 3.91 million, official figures showed Wednesday.
"Spring cherry blossom season boosted demand for visits to Japan in many markets, as in the previous month, and overseas travel demand increased in some Asian countries, in Europe, the U.S. and Australia to coincide with the Easter holidays," the Japan National Tourism Organization said.
It said the total surpassed the previous record of 3.78 million in January 2025 and was the highest single month on record, and the first single month to exceed 3.9 million visitors.
For the first four months of the year the total was 14.4 million, a rise of 24.5 percent.
A weak yen has for months been leading to a boom in visitors, with national tourism figures released in January showing a record of about 36.8 million arrivals last year.
The Japanese government has set an ambitious target of almost doubling tourist numbers to 60 million annually by 2030.
Authorities say they want to spread sightseers more evenly around the country, and to avoid a bottleneck of visitors eager to snap spring cherry blossoms or vivid autumn colors.
But as in other global tourist magnets like Venice in Italy, there has been growing pushback from residents in destinations such as the ancient capital of Kyoto.
The tradition-steeped city, just a couple of hours from Tokyo on the bullet train, is famed for its kimono-clad geisha performers and increasingly crowded Buddhist temples.
On Mount Fuji, the nation's highest mountain and a once-peaceful pilgrimage site, authorities have started charging climbers in an effort to reduce overcrowding.
Last year a barrier was briefly erected outside a convenience store to stop people standing in the road to photograph a view of the snow-capped volcano that had gone viral.
Business travelers in cities including Tokyo have complained that they have been priced out of hotels because of high demand from tourists.
Tourists gobbling sushi and onigiri have also been cited as a factor in shortages of rice, which has pushed the price of the staple to record levels, creating a political headache for the government.
This year the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) on March 30 declared the country's most common and popular somei yoshino variety of cherry tree in full bloom in Tokyo.
Although this year's blooming dates are around the average, the JMA says climate change and the urban heat-island effect are causing sakura to flower approximately 1.2 days earlier every 10 years.
Katsuhiro Miyamoto, professor emeritus at Kansai University, estimated the economic impact of cherry blossom season in Japan, from travel to parties held under the flowers, at 1.1 trillion yen ($7.3 billion) this year, up from 616 billion yen in 2023.
© 2025 AFP
54 Comments
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itsonlyrocknroll
Flash, Bang, Wallop, what a picture, what a photograph.
JeffLee
Spending by these inbound tourists accounts for under 2 percent of GDP and is concentrated in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, ie, places that don't need it, as opposed to places like Fukushima, Gifu, Wakayama, etc., that get relatively few. Wages tend to be rock-bottom anyway. The tourism boom with its push inflation and crowding out of essential services isn't worth it.
factchecker
And all of them after the same photos.
sakurasuki
Where's the part where local are complaining about over tourism?
One of the best part of having influx tourist, JGovt can keep blaming of rice hike to the tourist. Where it doesn't make any sense at all, rice price across Asia even tend to be cheaper for the last few year. Tourist in any given time only count small percentage of the whole population, their number can't make the rice price to be doubled.
deanzaZZR
50 million a year here we come. Thankfully I have already visited 40+ prefectures. Then it's easier to be highly selective in travel destinations.
deanzaZZR
Geez, if this is actually a real problem why not plan ahead and import rice to accommodate these rice gobbling foreign visitors?
TokyoLiving
Good, more money from tourism to Japan's economy..
Behave well, enjoy..
TokyoLiving
Annnnnd???....
Newgirlintown
”Behave well”?
happyhere
Thankfully tourists are not evenly spread all over the country. Keep them concentrated and let the rest of the country live a normal life.
dbsaiya
I can't even stay at a cheap business hotel without luxury resort prices. Lots of business trips are spur of the moment so availability makes it even more of a challenge to secure lodging.
Vanillasludge
The rain and the heat are coming to flush out all but the most dedicated tourists.
41c in Tokyo, here we come.
Vanillasludge
There’s some fundamental reasons why pushing tourism to the outer Prefectures will be hard.
Asian travelers tend to favor group tours, which will avoid less popular areas.
Renting a car in Japan scares most people from countries that drive on the right.
Finally, rural regions are not dialed into multilingual services.
Yubaru
Xenophobic reporting is particularly annoying to say the least, It is even more so disgusting when the outlet doing the reporting is a foreign news service.
I see far more Japanese "gobbling" rice in all forms, than tourists.
Antiquesaving
I see only old already retired financially stable people and a load of foreigners here complaining. Oh and the media that found something to create a fake problem about.
Paris a single city gets over 50 million tourists a year and the Japanese media acts like the country of Japan can't handle less than that!
The genius bar complaining, please explain what other business is going to provide jobs and taxes?
Manufacturing? Is that going to return? Nissan going to layoff thousands, so are many other previous major employers.
The reality is for every Yen a tourist brings is a Yen entering the country and not just circling around to eventually be sent out to import from elsewhere.
As for why tourists all end up in the same places!?
Well explain why 30 years ago my wife and her siblings all ended up on their school trips in Nara and Kyoto, then 20 years ago my children did the same, and presently my neighbour and friends children are, you guessed it going to Kyoto and Nara for their school trips.
The Japanese and others here ask why or how to make foreign tourists go to different places but can't get the Japanese to do it either.
Ph'el
Hilarious! Blame everybody but yourself for not importing more.
carpslidy
Why isn't there a 1000 yen departure or arrival tax ?
Another 3.9 billion every month would go a long way
chatanista
Tourists gobbling sushi and onigiri have also been cited as a factor in shortages of rice, which has pushed the price of the staple to record levels, creating a political headache for the government.
Could AFP stop their misinformation drivel blaming foreign tourists for the ( non existent ) rice shortage already? Speculators driving up price of rice do not equal foreign tourists.
deanzaZZR
Cool. Just like developing countries. There was a time when you had to annoyingly pay a departure fee at Narita. My understanding is that you still pay it but it is added to your airline ticket price.
CaptDingleheimer
I was there for half of April. Definitely saw a bunch of foreigners in Tokyo, but the places where my family members live haven’t been discovered yet. And there’s some nice spots in those places, too.
Ph'el
There's a credible argument that foreign tourists in North Korea do some good by exposing locals to democratic values and alternative ways of thinking, in the hope that this might eventually drive societal change. I hope the same holds true for Japan, especially when it comes to their treatment of suspects before trial and the broader judicial system.
tora
And to think there was just that many per year in thr early 2000s. And pretty much half that number per year before then going bsck to '64. Exponential growth started pretty much after 2012, with numbers doubling each few years or so to reach around 33,000,000 before the Covid ruined the party. Anr with growth back on track, the number will likely reach the government tsrget of 60,000,000 easily within the few years.
Good luck Japan. You'll need it.
upintheair
Come on Japan! Happiness is just around the corner. Once you hit 60 million everybody will be happy and financially safe. Just like beauty, tourism will save Japan! We cheer for you!
syniksan
Can't you figure it out? Why all go to the same place? LOOOOOOOOL!
gsa
If tourist all go to the same place, it is a problem because congestion.
If some tourist end up going to new places, it problem because local and infrastructure is not ready.
Government openly declaring 60 million tourist by 2030. Yet, locals instead of telling their government they are against, they rather go and try to make a commotion with tourists.
As if not enough, now again, tourist eating too many onigiris are part of price increase story, even though not long ago there was news about ordinary locals buying extra rice being afraid of running out of stocks.
Summary: What a pathetic situation. I can't believe once i had that much respect for this nation. What a waste of time and effort was it.
Antiquesaving
The biggest proof the "over tourism" claim is fake is the claims regarding Mount Fuji.
The authorities claim that 230,000 total per year is too many.
Funny between 2007 and 2018 the numbers were between 275,000 and 430,000 depending on the year.
So an average of over 300,000 for a decade wasn't a problem but suddenly foreigners make up a larger portion and they complain and claim they need to charge.
Remember the original proposal was to only charge international tourists and that got backlash as racist so they lowered the amount and charged everyone.
Now they noticed people even the Japanese are willing to pay so now they are doubling the fees and other trails are going to do the same.
Over tourism is just an excuse to put fees in place and complain.
Antiquesaving
I participate in outdoors sales events, participants sell everything from Japanese crafts to recycle and antiques.
In past years, most sellers sold low cost items ¥1,000 to maybe ¥5,000. 90% of the participants were cash only and the clients 90% Japanese.
Today the organisers were requested to help sellers set up mobile payment systems (younger sellers knew how to do it older ones the tech was a bit challenging).
Now at these shows those coming are around 50/50 Japanese and tourists.
But the sales are very different, it is now not unusual to make regular sales of ¥10,000 to ¥30,000 on a single customer usually a tourist and using credit cards.
I know many Japanese sellers that this has literally saved their business.
Shows that cost ¥10,000 a day for a spot plus expenses and once generated if lucky ¥50,000 in sales, now easily generate ¥100,000 and up.
A recycle Kimono vendor, used to sell a few low end ¥5,000 kimonos can now sell several ¥20,000 ones a day at these shows all to foreign tourists.
A few oldtimers complain but they are the ones refusing to adapt, they refuse to get a POS system (point of sales) and accept credit cards, so buyers just go elsewhere.
kohakuebisu
A big jump again, after smaller ones in Feb and March.
In 2025, visitors from mainland China are up 70% compared to 2024. This increase accounts for fully half of the Jan-April 24% increase in numbers. At this rate, mainland China will overtake South Korea in the next few months as the big source of visitors. Visitors from the USA have also overtaken visitors from HK.
https://www.jnto.go.jp/statistics/data/_files/20250521_1615-1.pdf
I suppose a valid question here would be "does Japan have enough Chinese speakers for locals to benefit from this increase?"
tamanegi
I was at a Ganko Restaurant in Osaka last Monday. A group of six Japanese businessmen at a nearby table left half of their omori sized rice bowls uneaten.
And the writer wants to blame tourists for the rice consumption and production mismanagement!
Antiquesaving
I don't speak 2 words of Mandarin (Chinese) and I have zero problem dealing with Chinese tourists, it is called Google translate, it works for Vietnamese, Italian, German, Indonesian, even American and other English language speakers.
We are no longer pre smartphones.
I traveled to Taiwan and South Korea and I used my phone's translation in both places and had zero problems.
WoodyLee
Well Done Japan, congrats.
Keep them coming.
HopeSpringsEternal
Tourism, really the only good news regarding Japan's economy, but still likely only about 2% of overall GDP, but far better than seeing tourism drop!
Antiquesaving
And
You should stop looking at 2019 and update your information and source.
https://wttc.org/news/japans-travel-and-tourism-sector-to-surpass-previous-records-in-2024
chatanista
Well Done Japan, congrats.
Keep them coming.
Not sure about that, lot of locals don't share that view.
chatanista
carpslidyToday 08:38 am JST
Why isn't there a 1000 yen departure or arrival tax ? Another 3.9 billion every month would go a long way
Absolutely, given the huge tourist numbers and weak yen it defies logic. Also the ( often abused ) sales tax exemption for foreign tourist purchases is not necessary.
Antiquesaving
Would people please look thing up before posting?
Japan has a departure tax and has an international tourist tax both ¥1,000 each.
There were even articles here on both!
yoshisan88
If tourism is not that important, why would the Japanese government and many local governments so hellbent on promoting it? All the money I spent on holiday in Japan went directly to the pockets of various businesses. I directly injected money into the local economy.
OMG! After blaming foreigners for eating all the rice, they are now being blamed for inflation (Did Japan have an inflation problem before the pandamic when tourist number was high? The weak Yen is the problem!) and crowding out essential services. What is next, breathing all the air?
HopeSpringsEternal
Japan's problem, definitely not tourism, rather a lack of vitality in the private sector, with far too little venture investment seeking to disrupt and innovate and an education system that is increasingly irrelevant, as 'legacy' Japan is unable and unwilling to change course
Japan's had no 'real' growth since 1990, only deficit fueled Govt. Spending with a demographic collapse
grc
Hard to see how cherry blossoms helped create such a large YoY increase. They bloom in April every year
Chico3
Well, that's great for Japan and its economy; seriously. Just important the anyone (Japanese and foreigners) have respect for Japan and its culture. I'm glad to hear that people here can enjoy Japan without any intense security or harassment as you see in other countries.
kohakuebisu
That's extremely noble of you, but "travel" and "hotels" are two of the lowest paying types of employment. We are talking 45th or lower out of 50 employment categories. In case you didn't notice, Japan has a cost of living crisis.
kohakuebisu
That's great and resourceful of you as an individual.
However, Japan is full of ski resorts where locals sold up for peanuts because they couldn't (be bothered to learn to) speak English and profit from overseas demand. This is a huge precedent for Japanese people failing to grasp a huge economic opportunity because of language reasons. It is best for a huge increase in demand from Chinese to help Japanese, not newcomer Chinese owners of onsen hotels bought for peanuts.
The same thing can be said for exporting used Japanese cars, an industry dominated by foreigners due a lack of Japanese entrepreneurship.
wallace
Some locations, like Kobe City, have volunteer tourist guides. You can meet them at the JR station, and they will accompany you.
Antiquesaving
And what are the alternatives?
Are you expecting manufacturing to suddenly return?
Remember Nissan 20,000 jobs going and they are not coming back.
The world has changed and Japan needs to learn to change with it.
As I pointed out to an older man at sales show complaining that tourists all want to pay by credit card and he only takes cash.
I pointed out he can get a POS on his phone to take credit cards, he pulls out a flip phone.
He complained credit cards take 3%, I said what is better if the client wants a ¥10,000 item and can't pay cash he get zero but if he takes a credit card he gets ¥9,800 .
His reply was "this is Japan I have always only taken cash" but he uses Suica for the train. This is the problem in Japan with certain people
Jonathan Prin
Problem of Japan is its limited road system.
Shinkansen were sometimes already full some 10 years ago, even though running every few minutes.
It seems impossible to multiply tourist buses and park them anywhere.
Think of Versailles which has a huge parking in front of it.
Otherwise tourists are for the rest just replacing the loss of population with time (about 1 million per year now !)
By the way, the true economic tourist indicator is not the number of tourists, it is the total of night stays from tourists.
Antiquesaving
And whose fault is all that?
During the Bubble no smartphones and in places like Canada the locals adapted they learned Japanese because that was where the money was coming from and today they learn Mandarin because that is where the money is now coming from.
It is way more difficult to learn English than Japanese or Mandarin (most of those ski resorts you mentioned are owned by Australians and the clients are Western tourists).
All I hear are excuses and little or no effort.
The era of life time employment has long gone, the era of just going through the paces and getting the same salary is gone just like the national government finally getting rid of floppy disks 40 years after the rest of the world, if the Japanese want to have jobs and money they need to adapt.
kohakuebisu
I work in tourism myself. If tourism is the only game in town, fair enough.
Tourists who come however are getting a very good deal and are not giving anyone money for nothing or out of charity. People should stop the "I put my money into the economy" self aggrandizing. It is narcissism like Trump's. Most jobs in tourism making beds and driving buses still leave workers at the breadline.
That is exactly what I am saying when I tell people to learn Chinese and other languages, to learn what Halal food is and how to serve it, and everything else tourists now expect. If not, the jobs for Japanese will be making beds and driving buses for foreign business owners selling to such foreign tourists.
Kaowaiinekochanknaw
Great work Japan.
Tourism is now the biggest export after cars.
Japan is much nicer with tourists than without.
Feels nice to be connecting with the world again after the isolation a few years ago.
Happy faces of all kinds.
Happy days.
Antiquesaving
Few tourists are actually going to drive, so not a real problem.
No they aren't especially with the shrinking population. The only time they are at capacity is during holidays like golden week and tourists are not limited to traveling only at those times.
My son had to go to Osaka for work on the weekend, he didn't have to even buy a ticket in advance or a reserved seat in either direction.
Now use an example more closely resembling Japan, like the Netherlands.
The GDP is a good indicator and from 2019 at just under 2% and 2024 it jumped to 7.5% of Japan's GDP by the time the goal of 60 million tourists per year is reached we will be looking at over 15%.
Time for people to stop making excuses and start adapting if they want to benefit.
My clientele was 100% Japanese before COVID now it is 50/50 Japanese and foreign tourists.
This meant adapting by adding multi lingual information, changing or adding services and products more to the tourist's wants and needs.
Did I want to change? No I was quite set in my ways, but do I want to do business? Yes, so I adapted.
CrashTestDummy
"The Japanese government has set an ambitious target of almost doubling tourist numbers to 60 million annually by 2030"
Wow, that would be a lot of tourists. I guess it is good for the Japan economy with lots of foreign money coming in. However, a lot of the hot spots (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, etc ) are just really super crowed by tourists and the prices for hotels and other things are going up a lot. I'm going to just go to the lesser crowded areas.
HopeSpringsEternal
What's really needed is for tourism to result in increased immigration to Japan. Spain, which has a far later tourism industry, even though the country has about 3X fewer people is doing really well at attracting new residents.
Ski resorts, likely having success attracting new fulltime residents, needs far more. Demographic collapse is real, in just ten years, likely there will be approx. 8 deaths for every native JN birth, from about approx. 3 to 1 this year.
HopeSpringsEternal
What's really needed is for tourism to result in increased immigration to Japan. Spain, which has a far larger tourism industry, even though country bout 3X fewer people, doing really well at attracting new residents.
Ski resorts, likely having success attracting new fulltime residents, needs far more. Demographic collapse is real, in just ten years, likely there will be approx. 8 deaths for every native JN birth, from about approx. 3 to 1 this year.
oyatoi
Tourists gobbling sushi and onigiri have also been cited as a factor in shortages of rice, which has pushed the price of the staple to record levels,
More like cited by serial confabulators. The population has been declining for years, balancing out any increase in additional rice consumption by tourists. Tourists, in turn, are far more likely to be consuming non rice alternatives than those who’ve shuffled off.
JapanToday needs to get its crack investigative team out there and report back the real reason for the spike in prices of this staple; namely, JA sponsored rice hoarding designed to further bid up the price. Sitting back and doing nothing will mark you as complicit in fomenting another of Japan’s periodic eruptions of instability, a redux of the numerous ‘rice riots’ that bedeviled earlier iterations of the Japanese state
リッチ
All that lost tax money. Let’s get rid of duty free