Japan's tourist boom sees record arrivals in Jan-May as weak yen lures shoppers

Japan is undergoing a tourism boom at the moment, with government figures showing Wednesday that foreign passenger arrivals totaled a record 7.54 million in the January to May period, with the figure set to continue increasing exponentially as the year goes on and provided the yen stays comparatively weak.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), at the current rate of influx of overseas tourists, the annual rate would likely top 18 million, well on the way to the government's plans to hit 20 million in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

JNTO said that figures in the month of May showing 1.64 million travelers arrived here, up nearly 50 percent from a year earlier, were the second-highest since record keeping began, topped only by the previous month, which saw 1.76 million arrivals.

The weaker yen has attracted a great deal of tourists to come here as purchasing power when overseas currencies are exchanged into yen is increased dramatically, and the JNTO said that Chinese visitors accounted for 387,200 arrivals in the recording period, more than double compared to the same period a year earlier and the largest contingent, with 339,700 arrivals from China's Taiwan and 315,400 from South Korea.

Duty free shopping for tourists in many major retail outlets and relaxed visa entry requirements has also contributed to the greater influx of tourists, the JNTO said.

But while Japan's major cities like Tokyo and Osaka are benefiting from the boom, rural areas are missing out to the point that on Tuesday local Japanese officials pitched the virtues of their communities to travel agents from 11 Asian countries and territories including powerhouses China and South Korea.

At the two-day event in Tokyo beginning Tuesday in Tokyo, around 250 travel agents were invited to the event, to hear about the charms of some of Japan's lesser-visited areas.

Public broadcaster NHK quoted an official from Hirosaki, in northeastern Japan, as telling the visiting travel agents that his city has a number of lovely attractions, including a castle, delicious apples and beautiful cherry blossoms.

A Malaysian travel agent was quoted as saying that on tourists' second visit to Japan, they'd likely be more interested in seeing some beautiful rural vistas and get away from the hullabaloo of the big cities for a while.

According to JNTO, 80 percent of Japan's tourists come from Asia, with the figure set to rise, although the nuclear disaster in the northeast in 2011 has seen visitors to that region plummet, owing to the multiple meltdowns and subsequent and ongoing leaks of radioactive substances into the air, land and sea. Endi