TOKYO: Japan’s tourism boom continued in July, with record arrivals for the month despite a steep drop in visitors from Hong Kong due to typhoon-related flight disruption and jitters about possible earthquakes, the tourism board said on Wednesday.

Arrivals of foreign visitors for business and leisure reached 3.43 million, a 4.4% increase from the same month last year and the highest number for any July, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) said.

During the month, the number of visitors from Hong Kong fell 36.9% and arrivals from South Korea dropped 10.4%, which contributed to the slowest monthly growth in arrivals so far this year, the data showed.

Contributing factors included typhoon-related flight disruptions impacting Hong Kong and social media chatter over recent earthquakes, which affected travel sentiment from both markets, according to the JNTO.

A persistently weak yen, however, continued to fuel growth from other key markets, offsetting some of the decline. Visitors from mainland China jumped 25.5%, while arrivals from the U.S. rose by 10.3%.

For the first seven months of 2025, Japan has welcomed 24.9 million tourists, up 18.4% from the same period in 2024.

REUTERS