Record foreign visitors to Japan reported in February

The number of foreign visitors to Japan rose 89.0 percent in February from a year earlier to about 2.79 million, a record for the month, government data showed.

Arrivals in February rose 7.1 percent from the same month in 2019 when there was no impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the Japan National Tourism Organization.

The surge came as the country continued to rebound from the impact of the pandemic, and the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays boosted the number of visitors from Asian nations, the tourism agency said.

By country, the largest number of travelers came from South Korea at 818,500, up 14.3 percent from pre-pandemic levels.

Meanwhile, the number of Japanese traveling overseas in the reporting month was just about 980,000, down 36 percent from February 2019 before the pandemic.