Japan February Tourism Numbers

Above, autumn colors adorn a shopping mall in Atami. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Japan's tourist numbers are in for February. There was a dip in the number of foreign tourists to Japan.

According to The Mainichi Daily News:

The number of foreign visitors to Japan in February totaled an estimated 548,200, down 19.3 percent from a year earlier, largely because the Lunar New Year holidays fell in January this year instead of February, the government's tourism promotion agency said Friday.

The Japan National Tourism Organization also attributed the drop in arrivals, down for the 12th straight month and at a much sharper rate than January's 4.1 percent, to travelers' concerns about radioactive contamination from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, as well as the strong yen.

Given the recent weakening of the Japanese currency, agency officials expressed hope for a recovery in March and beyond when the cherry blossom season begins.

Japan wasn't the only country to see a decline in foreign tourism, according to the article.

However, Japan's decline (with January and February's figures combined) wasn't as bad as the year earlier. It was roughly 11.5%.

To read the full article, go here.