A man uses an umbrella to shelter from the rain at the Ginza district in Tokyo on June 2, 2023. Photo by Philip FONG / AFP
Spending by foreign visitors to Japan exceeded pre-pandemic levels in September as the weak yen boosted their consumption power, giving a needed jolt to the economic recovery.
Outlays by visitors came to ¥1.39 trillion ($9.2 billion) in the July-September quarter, up 17.7 % from the same period in 2019 before the pandemic, the Japan Tourism Agency said on Wednesday. A separate report from Japan’s National Tourism Organization showed that the number of foreign visitors to Japan recovered in September to more than 96% of pre-pandemic levels.
Chinese visitors accounted for the biggest portion of spending in the quarterly data, at 20% of total outlays. Taiwanese visitors accounted for 15% of consumption, with South Koreans and US visitors making up about 14% and 10%, respectively. The data also showed that spending per visitor exceeded pre-pandemic levels by 29%.
Overall inbound tourism, tallied as an export of services in government data, has been a bright spot in Japan’s economic recovery as a weaker yen boosts the spending power of visitors from abroad. In the third quarter this year, the dollar traded at ¥144.61 on average, while in the same period of 2019 it traded at ¥107.34 on average.
"A recovery in inbound tourism is certainly a plus for the economy,” Yuichi Kodama, chief economist at Meiji Yasuda Research Institute, said. "The weak yen works for inbound tourism, but a rise in import prices hits households directly. Politically, the government will focus on supporting households.”
The total number of visitors was about 2.18 million in September, compared with 2.27 million in the same month of 2019, according to the organization.
Arrivals from China came to 325,600, down about 11% from the prior month and representing 40% of the total in the same month four years ago. That outcome was something of a surprise after Beijing lifted a ban on group tours to Japan a month earlier.
The sluggish pace of arrivals from China comes as tensions simmer over Japan’s release of treated wastewater off the coast of Fukushima. Beijing has banned Japanese seafood imports and Chinese consumers staged protests.
A survey published Tuesday by the Nikkei newspaper found that retailers posted record quarterly operating profits in the three months through Aug. 31, thanks in part to inbound shopping.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida aims for inbound spending to reach an annual ¥5 trillion ($33.4 billion) as soon as possible. That would exceed the record ¥4.8 trillion seen four years ago.
