Tourists hit record high of 42.7m arrivals in Japan, despite plunge from China

TOKYO - A record number of tourists flocked to Japan in 2025, officials said on Jan 20, despite a steep fall in Chinese visitors in December as a diplomatic row between Beijing and Tokyo rumbled on.

The country logged 42.7 million tourist arrivals in 2025, according to the transport ministry, topping 2024‘s record of nearly 37 million as the weak yen boosted the appeal of the “bucket list” destination.

However, the number of tourists from China in December dropped about 45 per cent from a year earlier to around 330,000.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s suggestion in November that

Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on Taiwan

triggered a sharp diplomatic backlash from China, which then urged its citizens to avoid travelling to Japan.

The Jan 20 announcement showed the warning has had an impact on visitor numbers.

China has been the biggest source of tourists to the Japanese archipelago, with almost 7.5 million visitors in the first nine months of 2025 – a quarter of all foreign tourists, according to official figures.

Attracted by a weak yen, they splashed out the equivalent of US$3.7 billion (S$4.75 billion) in the third quarter.

Transport Minister Yasushi Kaneko said it was a “significant achievement” that overall visitors numbers had topped 40 million people for the first time.

“While the number of Chinese tourists in December decreased, we attracted a sufficient number of people from many other countries and regions to offset that,” he said, adding that there had been a “steep” increase in tourists from Europe, the United States and Australia.

“We also hope and want to make sure that Chinese visitors will return to us as soon as possible.”

The overall increase is partly thanks to government policies to promote attractions from Mount Fuji’s majestic slopes to shrines and sushi bars in more far-flung parts of the archipelago.

The government has set an ambitious target of reaching 60 million tourists annually by 2030.

Overtourism

However, Japan’s biggest travel agency JTB forecast that overall tourist numbers for 2026 would be “slightly lower” compared with 2025 due to a decrease in demand from China and Hong Kong.

Nevertheless tourism income was expected to increase due to rising prices of items such as lodging and strong visitor spending.

It added that due to an uptick in repeat visitors to Japan, the places people want to visit are shifting from large cities to rural areas.

Authorities say they want to spread sightseers more evenly around the country, as complaints of overcrowding in hotspots like Kyoto grow.

As in other global tourist magnets like Venice in Italy, there has been growing pushback from residents in the ancient capital.

The tradition-steeped city, just a couple of hours from Tokyo by bullet train, is famed for its kimono-clad geisha performers and increasingly crowded Buddhist temples.

Locals have complained of disrespectful tourists harassing the geisha in a frenzy for photos, as well as causing traffic congestion and littering.

Elsewhere, exasperated officials have taken steps to improve visitors, including introducing an entry fee and a daily cap on the number of hikers climbing Mount Fuji.

A

barrier was briefly erected

outside a convenience store in 2024 to stop people standing on the road to photograph a view of the snow-capped volcano. AFP