Visitors to Japan Rocket 84-Fold in Jan.

Tokyo, Feb. 15 (Jiji Press)--The number of visitors to Japan in January jumped some 84-fold from a year earlier to 1,497,300, thanks to the drastic relaxation of COVID-19 border restrictions last autumn, government estimates showed Wednesday.

The figure topped December's 1.37 million, extending the uptrend to seven months on a month-on-month basis to reach 55.7 pct of the pre-pandemic January 2019 level.

Travel demand mainly from other parts of East Asia has been recovering, the Japan National Tourism Organization said.

By country or region, 565,200 people came from South Korea, 259,300 from Taiwan, 151,900 from Hong Kong and 88,100 from the United States.

Meanwhile, visitors from mainland China, who had accounted for some 30 pct of all foreign travelers before the coronavirus crisis, numbered 31,200, down 95.9 pct from January 2019.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]