The estimated number of foreign visitors to Japan in September increased by almost twelvefold from a year earlier to 206,500, government data showed Wednesday, with the figure likely to jump in the coming months after Japan removed almost all its COVID-19 entry restrictions earlier this month.
The figure exceeded 200,000 for the first time since February 2020 but was down 90.9% from September in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.
Visitors in the month were primarily businesspeople, technical interns and international students.