Japan receives mere 2,900 foreign travelers in April

TOKYO. KAZINFORM Japan received only an estimated 2,900 foreign travelers in April, down 99.9 percent from a year earlier, amid the global coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Wednesday.

It is the first time that the monthly figure has slipped below the 10,000 mark since 1964, when the Japan Tourism Agency began compiling such statistics. The percentage of decline was also the largest ever, Kyodo reports.

As travel restrictions have been put in place globally, the number of Japanese nationals who left the country in April plunged 99.8 percent from a year earlier to 3,900, according to the data from the agency.

Japan expanded its travel restrictions in early April, bringing the number of countries from which foreign nationals were barred from entry to about 70, including all parts of China and South Korea, as well as the United States and most of Europe.

The number of visitors from China took a dive to 200 in April from 726,132 from a year earlier, and those from South Korea dropped to 300 from 566,624, according to the data.

The number of visitors from Taiwan and the United States also decreased to 300 each from 403,467 and 170,247, respectively, in April last year.

The accumulated number of foreign visitors between January and April stood at 3.94 million, down 64.1 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.

Japan's entry ban aimed at preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus was expanded to about 100 countries this month.