TOKYO, January 17. /TASS/. The number of Russian tourists visiting Japan from January to December 2019 amounted to 120,000 people, which is 26.6% more compared to the same period in 2018, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) said on Friday.
In terms of tourist flow growth, Russia entered the top three along with Vietnam and the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, the number of tourists from South Korea immediately fell by 25% to 5.5 mln people due to the aggravation of historical differences between the two countries, as well as trade disputes.
In total, in 2019, 31.88 mln tourists visited Japan. The majority of inhabitants of mainland China come to the country. Over the year, their number amounted to 9.5 mln people - 14.5% more than in 2018. South Korea, despite the decline, is still on the second place in the ranking, followed by Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Starting from January 1, 2017, the Japanese authorities softened the regime for issuing entry visas to Russian citizens in accordance with the agreement dedicated to the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Japan in December 2016. As a result, in 2017 the number of tourists from Russia who visited Japan increased by 40.8% compared to 2016 and amounted to more than 77,000 people. The number of Japanese tourists in Russia for the same period exceeded 100,000 people.
Since October 1 last year, the Japanese side also introduced a new facilitated visa regime for Russian tourists visiting the country as part of organized tour groups. At the end of 2018, the number of Russian tourists who entered Japan increased by 22.7% to 94,8000 people, while Russia was visited by 120,000 Japanese in the same period. Both countries also agreed to increase mutual tourism flow to 400,000 people by 2023.