Nov 21 (Japan Times) - The number of foreign visitors to Japan marked the largest percentage drop in more than seven years in October with a 5.5 percent on-year fall, as a devastating typhoon and a continued plunge in South Korean tourists more than offset the effect of the Rugby World Cup, government data showed Wednesday.
The number of overseas visitors came to 2,496,600 in the month, down from 2,640,610 in October last year, the Japan Tourism Agency said.
The 5.5 percent decline was the biggest since February 2012 when the figure sagged 19.6 percent, a setback to the government’s efforts to boost the number of annual inbound visitors to 40 million by next year when the country hosts the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Overseas visitors totaled 26,914,400 in the first 10 months of the year, up 3.1 percent from the same period a year earlier.
In October, the number of South Korean visitors plunged 65.5 percent to 197,300 following a 58.1 percent drop in September and 48.0 percent tumble in August amid frayed ties between Tokyo and Seoul.
