Life & Leisure

Foreign tourist arrivals plunge up to 99.9 percent in June

Tokyo, July 15 (efe-epa).- The number of foreign visitors to Japan in June plummeted 99.9 percent as compared to the same month in 2019, according to official data released Wednesday.

The continuous decline in foreign visitors is due to the restrictions imposed by the Japanese government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the country.

Around 2,600 tourists visited Japan in June as compared to nearly 29 million in June 2019.

In May, the number was 1,700 and in April it was nearly 3,000, according to the government’s tourism office.

Since Apr. 3, Japan began to extend the ban on the entry of foreign visitors to prevent further cases of Covid-19, which has affected more than 22,000 people in the country, with 984 deaths, according to the latest official count.

The ban by Japan affects over 100 countries and territories, although the government has announced that it will gradually begin to reopen the borders to allow people from blacklisted nations.

Japanese immigration rules only allow the re-entry of permanent or long-term residents who have to leave the country due to special circumstances, such as the death of a family member or a surgical procedure.

According to data provided on Wednesday by the government’s tourism office, which gives approximate figures for June and May, some 300 Chinese nationals, about 100 Vietnamese, 100 South Koreans, and 100 Americans arrived in Japan in June. The number of visitors from other nationalities is below 100.

Tourists from China, South Korea, and Taiwan usually top the list of foreign visitors to Japan.

Before a ban was imposed on the entry of visitors from the 100 countries that are currently on the blacklist, the Japanese authorities demanded that visitors arriving in the country remain in quarantine for two weeks, a very big deterrent to tourists.

The number of foreign visitors arriving in Japan between January and June was 3.95 million, 76.3 percent less than that in the first half of 2019. EFE-EPA

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