TOKYO: Tourists to Japan from China dropped 45% in December from the year earlier but the total number of inbound visitors hit a record high for the month, the Japanese minister for tourism said on Tuesday.
Beijing had in November urged its citizens not to travel to Japan in an effort to punish Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi for comments she made about Taiwan.
For all of 2025, total tourist numbers to Japan reached a record 42.7 million people, exceeding 40 million for the first time, Yasushi Kaneko, the minister for land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, told a press conference.