About 61.71 million people visited major resorts or traveled to festivals during the Golden Week holidays, according to an estimate released Wednesday by the National Police Agency.
Although the holiday-studded period, between April 27 and May 6, was one day longer than last year, the number of visitors was down 2.12 million people.
The decline apparently stemmed from a fall in the number of visitors to cherry blossom festivals in Aomori and Akita prefectures, after the blossoms ended early this year due to warm weather, the agency said.
The Hakata Dontaku Port Festival in Fukuoka saw the highest turnout with 1.8 million visitors, topping the list for the 17th straight year since the police agency started gathering such data.
The Hiroshima Flower Festival ranked second with a turnout of 1.35 million, followed by the Minato Mirai area in Yokohama with 1.22 million.
The Arita ceramic work bazaar in Saga Prefecture took fourth spot, drawing 980,000 people, while Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, which opened in September, were fifth with 775,000 visitors.
Meanwhile, about 250,000 people climbed major mountains in Japan during the period, up 46,000 from a year earlier.