Japan witnessed a record 21.5 million tourists in the first six months of 2025. This is a 21 per cent increase from last year. The Japan National Tourism Organisation shared this news. Tourist numbers from China, South Korea and other countries increased. However, visitors from Hong Kong decreased due to rumours of the earthquake.
A record 21.5 million tourists visited Japan in the first six months of the year, a 21 per cent increase year-on-year, official figures showed Wednesday, despite visitors from Hong Kong dropping by a third over rumours of a quake. "The number exceeded 20 million in six months, the fastest pace ever," the Japan National Tourism Organisation said in a statement.
The figure in June alone jumped 7.6 per cent to record 3.4 million due to increased demand to coincide with school holidays," it said.
A year-on-year increase in tourists from China, South Korea, Singapore, India, the United States, and Germany contributed to the boost. However, the number of travellers from Hong Kong plummeted 33.4 per cent, with the JNTO citing online rumours warning of a massive earthquake in Japan.
People from Hong Kong made nearly 2.7 million trips to Japan in 2024. Although it is impossible to know precisely when an earthquake will hit, far-future-inducing predictions have spread widely among the Chinese city's residents.
Some posts cited a Japanese manga comic that predicts a major natural disaster in July 2025 based on the author's dream. Japanese authorities have repeatedly said the rumours are false.
The government has set an ambitious target to nearly double the number of tourists to 60 million annually by 2030. Authorities say they want to spread tourists more evenly around the country and to avoid a bottleneck of visitors eager to snap spring cherry blossoms or vivid autumn colours. However, as in other global tourist magnets, such as Venice in Italy, there has been a growing pushback from residents in destinations like the ancient capital of Kyoto.
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#bookmybooking #japantourism #foreigntourists #internationaltourism #kyoto