Kyodo Analysis: Chinese Visitors to Japan Show No Sign of Recovery, Down 55.5% in the First Nine Months; Japan Promotes Regional Travel to Win Repeat Visitors
TOKYO — Chinese mainland visitors to Japan have fallen sharply since last December, after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's Taiwan-related remarks in the Diet, and show no sign of recovering, Kyodo News reported in an analysis on November 6. Data released by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) on October 21 put mainland Chinese visitors at 3.336 million in January to September, down 55.5% from 7.488 million a year earlier, a drop of about 4.15 million. September alone saw 430,800 visitors, down 44.5%, the 10th straight month of year-on-year decline.
Total foreign visitors in the same period were about 30.73 million, down 2.9%, the first January-to-September decline in five years. Spending, however, rose: foreign visitors spent about 7.0574 trillion yen in the first nine months, up 1.9% to a record for the period. In September, visitors from South Korea rose 25.6% to 842,300 and those from Taiwan rose 13% to 595,600, helping to fill the gap.
The impact is sharpest in the regions. Osaka Tourism Bureau figures show Chinese visitors to Osaka fell 61.5% in January to August, to 1.501 million, a steeper drop than the national average; an Osaka official said the prefecture's reliance on Chinese visitors is among the highest in Japan and that making up the shortfall with other markets is very difficult. A taxi company on Shizuoka's Izu Peninsula said app-based orders from Chinese tourists, about 100 a day during the 2025 National Day holiday, had fallen to zero by January. Kansai Airport's winter schedule cuts China-route flights by about 70% compared with the winter of 2024.
Because Chinese visitors were Japan's second-largest source market in both 2024 and 2025, behind only South Korea, the slump puts heavy pressure on the government's visitor targets. Kyodo said the government and regional authorities are stepping up promotion of regional destinations to attract other markets and repeat visitors.
(Source: Kyodo News)
Source: Kyodo News
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：东京浅草仲见世商店街资料图（DXR 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0），经Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: File photo of the Nakamise shopping street in Asakusa, Tokyo (DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons.
