Japan Tourism Agency announced that duty-free shops in Japan extended to 35,202 as of April 1 2016, increasing by 21.2% (6,155 shops) for half a year. The total consisted of 21,693 shops in three major urban areas (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, Aichi, Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo), plus 3,783 shops, and 13,509 shops in other prefectures, plus 2,372 shops.
Tokyo was No.1 with 9,040 duty-free shops (+19.8%), followed by Osaka with 4,008 (+20.7%) and Kanagawa with 2,072 (+28.1%). The largest growth rate was 108% in Kochi Prefecture with 104 duty-free shops. The ratio of three major urban areas to other prefectures was 61.7% to 38.3%.
The table below shows changes of duty-free shops in the past four years:
In Japanese
