Tourist arrivals to Japan sank 4.9% in January, representing the first January monthly decline in four years.
It welcomed 3,597,500 inbound arrivals according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.
The decline was expected due to the unofficial boycott from major source market China over a diplomatic row relating to Taiwan.
It came after the Japan PM’s comments about Taiwan last year.
It was the first decline since January 2022.
The decline from the China market was a whopping 61% to just 385,000.
China started urging Chinese nationals to avoid travel to Japan in November.
Korea is Japan’s top source market, up 22% in January to 1.17 million which is a new monthly record.
Arrivals from Taiwan also went up 17% but travel from Hong Kong was down by a similar percentage.
