Culture News

Chinese visitors to Japan fall 60.7% in January as South Korea becomes the top market

Visitors from mainland China to Japan fell 60.7% year on year in January to 385,300, figures from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) released on Wednesday, February 18, show. Total foreign arrivals fell 4.9% to about 3.597 million, the first year-on-year drop since January 2022, Nippon.com reports, carrying a Jiji Press story.

South Korea was the largest source market with 1,176,000 visitors, up 21.6%, followed by Taiwan with 694,500 (up 17.0%). China ranked third. Arrivals from the United States rose 13.8% to 207,800, while Hong Kong fell 17.9%.

Malay Mail and Japan Today, both running AFP copy, put the fall in the context of the row that followed Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's November remarks on Taiwan, and Beijing's November 14 travel warning. JNTO also pointed to Lunar New Year falling in mid-February this year rather than late January.

“Factors such as reduced flight frequencies also contributed.” — JNTO, via Japan Today

Korea's Herald Economy asked which countries filled the gap. It noted that Chinese visitors spent 2.0026 trillion yen in 2025, 21.2% of all foreign spending, but argued the blow looks limited because higher-spending visitors from the US, Australia and Russia increased.

How each outlet framed it

• Nippon.com (Jiji Press) — the rankings: Korea, Taiwan, China, US.
• Malay Mail (AFP) — diplomacy: the travel warning and the Taiwan row.
• Japan Today (AFP) — JNTO's own reasons, including flights and holiday timing.
• Herald Economy — money: who spends more per head, and who replaced China.

Where the numbers differ: AFP puts mainland Chinese arrivals in January 2025 at 980,520; Herald Economy gives 980,250. AFP rounds South Korea to 1.2 million.