The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a record 19.7 million in 2015, up 47 per cent from the previous year, the Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) says.
The increase rate was the largest since the JNTO started compiling comparative data in 1964.The increase was largely attributed to the yen's depreciation, an increasing number of arrivals of cruise ships, more flight routes and relatively cheaper air fares thanks to plunging oil prices, JNTO said.
The number of tourists from China more than doubled from a year earlier to nearly five million, making the country the largest market for Japan in 2015, followed by four million South Korean visitors, up 45 per cent from the previous year.Despite occasional diplomatic tensions between Japan and the two neighbouring countries, Japanese local economies increasingly depend on such visitors.The combined number of visitors from six countries in Southeast Asia - Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia - has topped two million for the first time, JNTO said.
The number of overseas visitors last year surpassed that of Japanese who visited abroad for the first time in 45 years, it said.
SOURCE: DPA, Tokyo
Meanwhile: Nearly 2m visited Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam in 2015
Around 1.9 million visited Amsterdam's Vincent Van Gogh museum in 2015, the year marking 125 years since the Dutch painter's death. The attendance record was 18 per cent higher than in 2014, the museum says.
A special exhibit comparing the works of Norway's Edvard Munch and Van Gogh has attracted 585,000 visitors since September. The exhibit of approximately 100 works includes Munch's The Scream and Van Gogh's The Starry Night.