TOKYO: The number of foreign visitors to Japan in February is estimated at 2,788,000, a record high for the month, a Japan National Tourism Organization report showed Tuesday.

The monthly figure was up 1.9-fold from a year before and up 7.1 pct from 2,604,322 in February 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The February growth was led by solid numbers of visitors from South Korea, Taiwan and the United States.

The number of visitors from mainland China, which has been slow to recover to prepandemic levels, jumped 12.7 times from a year before to 459,400, as the country celebrated the Lunar New Year holiday period in mid-February.

The number of Chinese visitors was 63.5 pct of the level in the same month of 2019. The recovery rate improved from 55.1 pct in January and exceeded 60 pct for the first time.

Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Ichiro Takahashi told a press conference that sluggish domestic demand in China was a factor weighing on travel demand there.

“Looking at the recovery situation of other markets, we still see the need to steadily shore up” Chinese demand, he said, indicating his intention to promote visits to Japan.

South Korea was the most common country or region of origin for visitors to Japan at 818,500 people. It was followed by Taiwan at 502,200 people, China, Hong Kong at 205,900 people and the United States at 148,700 people. The number of visitors from Taiwan reached a monthly record high.

Meanwhile, the number of Japanese outbound travelers in February grew 1.8-fold from a year earlier to 978,900. But the figure was only 63.8 pct of the prepandemic level, as the weak yen made overseas travel more expensive.

JIJI Press