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More tourists arrived in Japan in October than in the same month in 2019 before the pandemic, a progression that will affect the economy after its slump over the summer.
The number of visitors is about 2. 52 million, up from 2. 50 million in October 2019, Japan’s National Tourism Organization said Wednesday.
Inbound tourism has been one of the few bright spots in Japan’s asymmetric economic recovery. Travel to Japan via overseas has already surpassed pre-pandemic levels in the quarter that ended in September, as the yen’s weaker stance this year boosted its purchasing power.
Tourism is an example of how the weak yen has benefited the economy. On the other hand, currency weakness has pushed up import prices for domestic buyers and businesses, fueling inflation.
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said the government aims to maximize the positive effects of the yen’s weakness and mitigate the negative effects of its new economic stimulus measures.
Since the beginning of the year, the yen has weakened by about 13% against the dollar and about 14% against the euro, expanding the spending capacity of foreign tourists. The yen also fell against the yuan and the Korean won.
Japan’s economy shrank more than expected in the third quarter, contracting an annualized 2. 1%, largely due to reduced business spending, sluggish consumption and a drag on net exports.
A further increase in tourism this quarter could help push the country into a technical recession.
The number of visitors to South Korea in October was 631,100, more than 3 times the pre-pandemic figure. Visitors from Taiwan, Singapore and the United States also surpassed their respective grades in October 2019.
The number of Chinese visitors, which was the largest organization before the pandemic, fell 21% to about 256,300 from last month. That’s a two-thirds drop from October 4 years ago.
Its comeback has slowed despite the end of China’s ban on connecting to Japan in August. Tensions between the two countries continue to simmer over Japan’s discharge of treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear site into the sea.
As domestic demands remain weak, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has rolled out a stimulus package worth more than 17 trillion yen ($113 billion), focusing on source-of-income tax cuts and aid. to low-income families so they can cope with emerging economies. costs caused in part by the weakness of the yen.