16-07-2025
Japan marks record number of tourists in first half of 2025
International tourists crowd the streets of Tokyo's Tsukiji area in April. (Eiichiro Nakamura)
Japan welcomed a record 21.51 million visitors in the first half of 2025, marking a 21 percent increase compared to the same period last year, the Japan National Tourism Organization announced on July 16.
Tourist spending also surged to an unprecedented 4.8 trillion yen ($32.23 billion), a 22.9 percent rise year-on-year, setting new benchmarks for the January-to-June period.
South Korea was the largest source of tourists with 4.78 million visitors, up 7.7 percent from last year. Close behind was China, which saw a remarkable 53.5 percent increase to 4.71 million visitors.
Taiwan followed with 3.28 million visitors, up 10.3 percent, and the United States contributed 1.7 million visitors, a 26.7 percent rise.
One notable exception was Hong Kong, where visitor numbers fell slightly by 0.4 percent to 1.27 million.
This decline followed widespread social media rumors about an impending earthquake disaster in Japan during July, which were later found to be baseless.
All other countries and regions saw growth in inbound tourism.
Tourist spending in the first half of 2025 nearly matched the total annual figure of the 4.81 trillion yen recorded in 2019.
Japan continues to target ambitious goals of attracting 60 million visitors and generating 15 trillion yen in tourism spending by 2030.
In a related development, the Japan Tourism Agency announced the creation of a new senior official role dedicated to travel promotion, effective July 1.
This position will focus on boosting both domestic and international travel by Japanese citizens, as well as strengthening human resources in the tourism sector.
