Japan continues to break tourism records.
A record 2.68 million tourists visited Japan last month, up 16.8% year-on-year, most fuelled by short-haul markets.
The biggest gains came from South Korea which surged by 44.1% to more than 600,000.
Japan’s largest market China was also up nearly 7% to more than 780,000 in July.
So far arrivals are up more than 17% for the first seven months of the year compared to 2016.
The Japan Tourism Agency cites the increase in low-cost flights and more flights serving regional destinations such as the Kansai region and Hokkaido.
The agency has targeted an ambitious 40 million annual visitors by the time Tokyo hosts the Olympic Games in 2020.
