Culture News

Japan's foreign visitors fall 5% in September as Chinese arrivals halve and Koreans surge

Japan received 3,103,700 foreign visitors in September 2026, down 5.0% from a year earlier, according to Japan National Tourism Organization figures reported by the Japanese trade site Travel Voice. It was the second month in a row of year-on-year decline, though a smaller drop than in August.

The gap is China. Arrivals from mainland China fell 44.5% to 430,800. South Korea was the biggest market by far at 842,300, up 25.6%, and Taiwan rose 13% to 595,600. The US slipped 3.2% and Hong Kong 3.0%. Travel Voice lists typhoon flight cancellations, higher air fares and a continued large cut in flights from China as drags, with the Asian Games in Aichi giving some support. From January to September, Japan counted 30,730,200 visitors, down 2.9%.

The Irish trade site Travel Extra, reporting August's numbers earlier this month, tied the China fall to worsening bilateral ties and a Beijing travel warning against trips to Japan, followed by airline cuts. Brussels-based Travel Tomorrow had already called the first half of the year Japan's first visitor drop in six years.

The Chinese market's importance “cannot simply be replaced by an increase in visitors from other countries.” — a Chinese researcher, via Travel Tomorrow

How each outlet framed it

• Travel Voice — the monthly data: records from Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, India and Mexico, and 16 markets in decline.
• Travel Extra — politics first: the travel warning and the flight cuts that followed.
• Travel Tomorrow — the bigger picture: whether other markets can make up for China.

What we don't know yet: Japan still aims for 60 million visitors a year by 2030, Travel Extra notes. None of the outlets says when flights from China might return to earlier levels.