Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) reported that the number of international visitors in Japan was up 21.5% year on year, reaching 2,595,000 in October 2017 (record-high for October: 2,136,000 in October 2016).
The total for the first ten months of 2017 was up 18.3% year on year: 23,791,500 visitors i.e. 3.67 million more visitors than a year earlier, just about 250,000 fewer visitors than the total for all 2016 (24,039,700 visitors).
The graphs below show the change in the number of international visitors in Japan for the past year:
The top market was China with 663,800 visitors (+31.1%), followed by South Korea with 620,100 (+38.1%), Taiwan with 421,100 (+18.8%), and Hong Kong with 171,100 (+11.1%) visitors. The share of visitors from these four markets was 72.3% of the total. The market share of Europe, North America and Australia was 12.1%.
The number of visitors from Russia was a record-high on a single month basis due to an easing of the visa rules for Russian travelers. The number of visitors was a record-high for October for all the (20) target markets except Canada and Germany.
A shift of the holiday season in East Asia from September last year to October this year boosted the numbers for this market. According to JNTO, other major factors for the increased number of international visitors were (1) an increase in the number of cruise ships for Japan, (2) and extension of the air network and (3) effective promotional campaigns for autumn.
For each market, the number of visitor arrivals in October 2017 was:
